Sarah Dalton: Executive Director of the on $85 million spending increase on contractors and consultants

Health New Zealand spent $85 million more on contractors and consultants in this financial year, compared to last. 

The health agency is putting the increase down to a global shortage of health workers. Health Minister Shane Reti says contract hires are needed to fill full-time workforce gaps. 

Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, Sarah Dalton tells Ryan Bridge the 2023 Workforce Plan identified 1700 doctors missing from the system. 

“This health system continues to rely too heavily on locums to run hospitals. It means staffing remains fragile, and it means it’s really expensive.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The oppositions having a crack at Health New Zealand and
the government. The agency spent eighty five million dollars more
on consultants and contractors in the year to June twenty
twenty four than it did in the year to June
twenty twenty three. Now some caveats on this. That includes
all but half, well about half actually of labour's time
and power, and it also includes people and comms. An

(00:24):
increase in people in comms. Now people means hr. I
think comm's meaning communication staff. That's blown out from twenty
seven million dollars to sixty one, it's doubled. The Health
Agency is putting the spending increase down to a global
shortage of health workers. The roles hired on a contracting
basis are needed to fulfill time workforce gaps, according to

(00:46):
the department. Sarah Dalton's with the Association of Salary Medical Specialists.
She's the executive director there and she's with us this morning.
This is AzID be Exclusive. Good morning, Sarah, Good morning, Ryan.
How I I'm very well, thank you. I'm assuming on
the face of it you would support them spending more
money to fill gaps that need to be filled.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Yeah, on the face of it, we would obviously, you know,
if you and I are our family go to hospital,
we want to know that there are other clinicians there
to provide good care, right, Yeah, So.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
That's good, So we're happy. Case closed.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I wish it were that simple. So we would like
to see Fatwater Health New Zealand putting that money into
recruiting and retaining permanent staff, and that they haven't got
the balance right there. So every hospital system will require
local cover. Sometimes they're basically temporary or casual doctors or

(01:42):
other staff who can fill gaps. But this health system
continues to rely too heavily on locoms to run hospitals.
It means staff and remains fragile, and it means it's
really expensive.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
We're never going to get that right though. I mean,
I mean we've got actually an opposition party here criticizing
a budget which they were half responsible for, which probably
just goes to show you that no matter who's in power,
we're going to be using locans up the Marzu.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
No, I still think that the balance is wrong. We
are still waiting to see a comprehensive workforce plan and
a workforce census that says actually Health New Zealand knows
specifically where the people are, where the specific shortages are,
and what the plan is to address them. You know,
the twenty twenty three Workforce Plan identified seventeen hundred doctors

(02:32):
missing from the system. This year's budget made no reference
to those known vacancies in terms of how they were
funding or how they were working to fill those gaps.
And this year's Health Workforce Plan is missing an action.
I asked the minister about it. He says, it's with cabinet.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Okay, a lot of things with cabinet at the moment.
Hey just randomly a lot of stories about us importing.
You know, we've got new registrations for doctors coming in
from Ireland and England and Australia and stuff. They're making
up a greater percentage of our new registrations than locally
trained doctors. Same story going with nurses. Is that really
a big problem? Who cares? Where if my doctor was

(03:09):
trained in Australia or here, they're still going to do
the same operation on me, aren't they.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, so we always rely heavily on overseas trained doctors.
That isn't new. Upwards of forty five percent of our
senior doctors intend to sew overseas trained. We still don't
even come close to training as many as we need
here and we would like a greater investment in that.
So on the face of it, as long as those
doctors have are appropriately training, qualified and learn a bit

(03:38):
about what it means to work in New Zealand, that
isn't a massive problem. Although we think having a sensible
mix of locally and overseas trained doctors helps in terms
of again sustainable workforce.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Because I suppose they could all bugger off at some point,
couldn't they all? Or a pandemic or a war comes along,
they all go home and we left with no one
to do the operations. Sarah, thank you very much for that.
Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
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(04:15):
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