Te Whatu Ora will restrict overtime and unused leave

New Zealand’s orders to curb overtime and large leave allowances to save money will inevitably harm patients, doctors in training say.

The agency has written to health unions outlining 14 guidelines it has issued to hospitals, including banning duplication of shifts, closing some vacancies and forcing staff to take advantage of leave.

Te Whatu Ora said it was pushing the measures because it could not enter the new financial year with a deficit as it was now.

“We need to address staffing costs and have more room to do so given the significant progress made on staffing shortages, such as filling nursing vacancies,” the letter to the senior doctors’ union said.

But the head of the Resident Doctors’ Association, Dr Deborah Powell, said the reason staff were working overtime and leaving was due to staff shortages.

“If you take annual leave in some areas, the work just doesn’t get done.”

She said the union had been trying for years to end double shifts as they posed a risk to health and safety, but this move by Te Whatu Ora made it clear that money was a bigger concern.

Hospitals that needed to appoint new clinical staff now also had to have them signed off by an official in Wellington.

Powell said she was aware of a short-staffed radiology department that was dealing with additional bureaucracy.

“To replace a radiographer, instead of getting three sign-offs, we now have to go to the head of the hospital and specialist services, which equates to five sign-offs.

“So it has consequences for the clinical situation. It has been signed off so that position will be filled, but there is now extra bureaucracy involved.”

It was upsetting for frontline staff not to be sure whether the positions would be filled or not, she said.

rnz.co.nz