Urgent bid to fill rollout roles

WELLINGTON: A programme coordinator, two service design advisers and several ‘‘sequencing’’ managers — these are some of the roles the Ministry of Health is urgently seeking to fill for its Covid vaccination rollout.

The job vacancies, advertised internally on the public service’s deployment site, are ‘‘high priority’’, calling into question the Government’s readiness to introduce the vaccines.

But the Ministry of Health says it needs to scale up its workforce in line with the rollout, which at present is prioritising border workers, highrisk frontline workers and people living in highrisk places.

Covid19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins and directorgeneral of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield remain adamant the vaccine campaign is more or less on track.

But the Government has been increasingly on the back foot over its reluctance to release data, including daily vaccination targets and the proportion of frontline border workers who are still to be vaccinated.

The Ministry of Health has just started releasing the number of vaccine doses compared with the rollout plan — but only up until the previous week and not looking into the future.

On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern released the number of MIQ workers who have had at least one vaccine jab — 86% — but only after the Government revealed that two infected Grand Millennium security guards had not been vaccinated despite them wanting to be.

Mr Hipkins is expected to release more data today when he gives the weekly vaccination update.

The ministry’s current job vacancies were a sign that all was not well, National Party Covid19 response spokesman Chris Bishop said yesterday.

‘‘It beggars belief that the ministry is clearly looking for a rollout team to actually roll out the Covid19 vaccine programme that’s already been rolling out for almost two months.

‘‘The real question is: why wasn’t the Government organised enough to recruit these urgent and highpriority roles well in advance of now?

‘‘It is a deeply concerning sign that the vaccine programme is in trouble,’’ Mr Bishop said.

The jobs are described on the site as ‘‘urgent and highpriority roles that are essential to the programme’’.

They include:

■ A programme coordinator (governance and reporting) to ‘‘coordinate project delivery and programme requirements’’.

■ A team coordinator (logistics and inventory).

■ Three senior advisers (two for service design and one for finance to make ‘‘fiscally sound, strategic decisions’’).

■ An executive assistant (communications and engagement). µ Four cohort managers for ‘‘guiding the cohort through their vaccination experience’’.

■ Six sequencing coordinators to support the cohort managers.

■ Two process analysts for ‘‘mapping and continuous improvement’’.

‘‘Over the coming weeks, MoH will be seeking assistance from across the system for a number of roles,’’ the site says.

‘‘These roles are crucial parts of the vaccination and immunisation programme for Covid19.’’

Most of the positions are for six months.

A Ministry of Health spokesman said the programme sometimes demanded specialist skills.

‘‘The Ministry of Health continues to work alongside other agencies and second in, or contract, expertise as required, for example establishing the Covid19 vaccine and immunisation programme.

‘‘Some of these engagements may be brief, or for fixed periods of time, as we utilise specialist skill sets as needed.

‘‘As the Covid19 immunisation programme continues to scale up, in line with the Government’s Covid19 vaccine sequencing framework, so too does its workforce.’’

From May, the rollout is expected to start vaccinating people at risk of getting very sick from Covid19, including those aged 65 and over, with the general population last in line from July.