Govt not addressing health workforce crisis

The National Government is hiding the gaps in the health workforce from New Zealanders, by not producing a full workforce plan nearly a year into their tenure.

“Since National came into government, we’ve had secrecy around cuts, hiring freezes and voluntary redundancies,” Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said.

“National campaigned on a workforce crisis and Shane Reti said he would deliver a workforce plan – where is it?

“In Government, Labour published a comprehensive assessment of gaps and actions to address needs across the health sector. In contrast, National has not been upfront about the nature and extent of the needs, nor how they will address staff shortages.

“Labour’s plan for financial year 2023-2024 led to hiring more than 4000 staff and was upfront about where further training and investment was needed,” Ayesha Verrall said.

Mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary said we welcome the training of extra mental health workers.

“However the Mental Health Workforce plan is scant and underwhelming in its failure to address recruitment incentives, retention, career pathways and immigration settings,” Ingrid Leary said.

“It also does nothing to address mental health workforce in rural areas, the far north and southern areas where the need is most critical.

“We have a mental health workforce crisis including a brain drain to Australia, and the government isn’t addressing the current hiring freeze, burn out and low morale,” said Ingrid Leary.