Former Health Minister Ayesha Verrall has rejected the government's claims that its health reforms have been an expensive botch-up. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Labour has hit back at the government's accusations its health reforms have been an expensive botch-up with a blow out in middle management and an overspend of $130 million a month.
Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said it's "absolutely untrue."
"I don't accept what the government said [yesterday] - that there have been a growth in middle management over five years - as a cause for one year's budget trouble under their watch.
"A blowout in the financial year that they are responsible for is their responsibility."
The coalition government announced yesterday it would be replacing the board of Health New Zealand with a commissioner, who will be tasked with finding savings and strengthening the agency's governance.
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti said without urgent action, Health New Zealand would run an estimated deficit of $1.4 billion by the end of 2024-25.
Reti blamed the previous government, saying the "botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ".
"The issues at Health NZ stem from the previous government's mismanaged health reforms, which resulted in an overly centralised operating model, limited oversight of financial and non-financial performance, and fragmented administrative data systems which were unable to identify risks until it was too late."
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the government's framing of the situation at Health NZ was a misleading, brazen and desperate attempt to pin responsibility for its own decisions on the previous Labour government.
Former Health Minister Verrall added that Labour made those reforms partly to make the system more efficient.
"We knew that duplicating management across 20 DHBs was wasteful," said Verrall, "So for this government to claim that that is the basis for their current actions is untrue."
The prime minister said Health New Zealand was not meeting the outcomes against the targets the government has set, was not managing its budget, and had no clear organisational model.
Christopher Luxon said no level of funding can fix the failures of governance and financial management at the health agency, but the failures "do require an urgent and significant intervention".
He pointed to the government having invested an additional $16.3b into the health system from the next three Budgets.
