The newly appointed commissioner of Health NZ Te Whatu Ora has given his first press conference today.
Long-time health executive, academic, and doctor Lester Levy was yesterday appointed to lead the Government’s health agency after its board was sacked.
Levy said reducing all wait list times, better service delivery using current resources, and quality patient care are at the top of his work list.
"I firmly believe that we can deliver a lot more healthcare out of the actual resources that we have now, and we need to do that," he said. "This is not just a kind of productivity as a financial or commercial or economic construct.
"Productivity is actually a clinical construct, because if we can use the resources we have in the most optimal way to provide as much healthcare as possible, then people who are waiting will have to wait less time."
GPs and hospital clinicians have told 1News they are concerned Te Whatu Ora is currently operating over budget by $130m a month.
It’s an amount labelled "unsustainable" by Levy, the Government, and those working on the health frontline.
The newly-appointed commissioner of Health NZ Te Whatu Ora has given his first press conference today.
Long-time health executive, academic, and doctor Lester Levy was yesterday appointed to lead the Government’s health agency after its board was sacked.
Levy said reducing all wait list times, better service delivery using current resources, and quality patient care are at the top of his work list.
"I firmly believe that we can deliver a lot more healthcare out of the actual resources that we have now, and we need to do that," he said. "This is not just a kind of productivity as a financial or commercial or economic construct.
"Productivity is actually a clinical construct, because if we can use the resources we have in the most optimal way to provide as much healthcare as possible, then people who are waiting will have to wait less time."
GPs and hospital clinicians have told 1News they are concerned Te Whatu Ora is currently operating over budget by $130m a month.
It’s an amount labelled "unsustainable" by Levy, the Government, and those working on the health frontline.
However, the commissioner offered reassurance to the primary care sector today and said he was seeking better efficiencies from the agency he described as a "bloated bureaucratic organisation".
One academic at Auckland Medical School, health systems professor Tim Tenbensel, said Aotearoa is paying the price for underfunding since the 2010s and that it spends less on healthcare than countries like Australia.
Tenbensel said there is no doubt Te Whatu Ora "hasn’t had enough budget to meet the health sector crises, but does the fiscal crisis warrant this 'breathtaking' move?"
Levy said the agency’s focus will now be through service delivery via four regional health services.
Who will lead the regional services and how they will operate has yet to be worked out.
Highly charged debate looks set to continue over the country's health priorities, service delivery, and funding while New Zealand remains short-staffed in many areas of the health sector.
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