Medical jobs are being left unfilled as part of a crackdown on hospital recruitment, despite Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ saying otherwise.
Hospital workers have reported that clinical jobs in their departments are being left vacant, and a senior hospital leader has written to staff about the “overly complex and bureaucratic” recruitment process.
In June, Te Whatu Ora instigated a hiring freeze on all roles that were “not patient-facing” to try to rein in its budget, but its language around whether that applied to any medical jobs was murky.
The senior doctors’ union and other health workers who contacted RNZ said clinical recruitment had ground to a halt in many cases, even the straightforward replacement of a departing doctor or nurse.
There was now a quota on how many jobs could be filled for each region, and every appointment had to be approved by a regional committee. Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Sarah Dalton said frustrated doctors from many specialties had told her they could not fill desperately needed roles.
Even hospital bosses, like Middlemore’s chief medical officer of health, Andrew Connolly, had expressed worry about the lag. A Te Whatu Ora spokesperson said the Connolly email referred to the earlier version of the recruitment change, where every role in the country had to be approved by one person in the head office, not the updated regional committee process.
A Te Whatu Ora document outlined the new hiring process, which requires department managers to make their request for a vacancy they want to be filled by Wednesday each week.
The regional recruitment forum must prioritize approving roles addressing a shortage on the critical workforce list and consider the hospitals with the greatest frontline need.
Health NZ chief executive Margie Apa said more than 600 staff accepted a job offer in June, acknowledging there may be delays between when staff leave and new staff come into roles.
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