Hospitals must save $105m

The country’s public hospitals have been given the target of saving a total of $105 million by July.

Te Whatu Ora released the figure to RNZ yesterday after a series of leaks about which health districts faced what targets.

It said several districts have gone over budget in the past three months and added it is “reducing the overspend, not making cuts”.

Earlier yesterday, RNZ reported leaked information showed 12 districts had to save more than $80m. What the other eight, mostly smaller districts need to save has now been revealed as a combined $23.3m.

The savings ordered range from 0.6 per cent to 1.2 per cent of a district’s budget. A group in the central North Island faces the highest proportional targets.

“The work we are doing is about bringing us back to budget,” said chief executive Margie Apa.

The agency also confirmed consulting firm PwC “is providing some support for this particular programme, but responsibility rests with our leadership team”.

A PwC staff member was helping at Canterbury/Waitaha where there had been some resignations recently in the finance team.

The savings had to be viewed against total budgets, Apa said. Health NZ was funded with almost $23 billion for 2023-24.

“Our hospitals have faced some major cost pressures this year.”

They had managed to hire more clinical staff, nursing and medical graduates, and almost 2500 nurses last year. “That means we can reset the staffing in our hospitals, with less reliance on contingent or temporary staff. It also means staff can, and should, take leave,” Apa said.

Health Minister Shane Reti said: “Health NZ is not subject to the same Government directive for savings as some other departments. These are operational decisions made by Health NZ, not the Government.”