Health New Zealand has implemented a recruitment pause on all hospital roles that are not patient-facing and all public health roles that are not community-facing, as it attempts to bring down an overspend.

In a statement, Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa said the agency has been successful in filling a number of vacancies, which has led to an overspend “that Health NZ must now manage to return within budget.”

The overspend has been driven by an increase in people costs, something Apa suggested is occurring across the economy.

An organisation-wide pause has been brought in on roles that are not patient-facing, and public health roles that are not community-facing.

This comes on top of restrictions on enabling services, people and communications, and finance.

Health New Zealand was confident the changes would not impact front-line services.

“Staff and patient safety and clinical delivery remain our priorities,” Apa said.

A new process is coming into force for hospital and specialist services recruitment, with the national approval process being removed and replaced with a regional plan.

“These new processes will help us continue to address the budget overspend, but in a way that is closely informed by local clinical priorities. No frontline budgets are being cut,” Apa said.

Health New Zealand had previously denied it had ordered a hiring freeze but had to close some vacant roles and force staff to use leave in some occasions as its financial books were operating in deficit.

The New Zealand Nurses’ Organisation says Health New Zealand is asking staff to pay back funds given in error, despite the fact it owes billions in payments to workers.

The confirmation comes the same day as the confirmation of a net 123 jobs being culled at the Ministry of Health.

Data from the Public Service Commission for the year to June shows the Ministry of Health saw a decrease in full-time equivalent employees this year, with most staff transferred to Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora during the year.

Azaria Howell is a Wellington-based multimedia reporter with an eye across the region. She joined NZME in 2022 and has a keen interest in city council decisions, public service agency reform, and transport.