Simeon Brown has been named the new health minister, replacing Dr Shane Reti. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
- Dr Shane Reti will be replaced by former transport minister Simeon Brown as health minister.
- Reti's time in the role was characterised by his deep understanding of health and his transparency when making tough calls, General Practice New Zealand chair Bryan Betty says.
- The PSA's Fleur Fitzsimons says Simeon Brown's success will be dependent on ensuring investment in the sector so New Zealanders can access the healthcare they deserve.
- Brown is "up for the challenge", Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says.
A change of health minister will come as little comfort to people waiting too long for healthcare or not being treated at all, health advocates say.
This weekend, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced he was stripping Dr Shane Reti of the health portfolio and installing former transport minister Simeon Brown in the role.
In a statement, Luxon said Brown was "an outstanding and diligent minister who has done an excellent job delivering on the government's priorities".
But the Public Service Association's acting national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said it was those priorities that were out of step with a "genuine commitment" to getting New Zealanders the healthcare they needed.
"Every day public health workers see the nightmare of the cuts to our health system. Simeon Brown needs to respect them, listen to them, and then ensure that they get the increased investment to do their job well in the interest of all New Zealanders," Fitzsimons said.
Polls were showing New Zealanders had become increasingly concerned at the state of the health sector, as it struggled under staff shortages, governance problems, funding deficits, and the proposal to scale back Dunedin Hospital's rebuild.
Fitzsimons said New Zealanders were witnessing the impact of the government's austerity agenda.
Any measure of Brown's success would be dependent on an abrupt about-face in order to retain health workers under pressure from poor conditions and the high cost of living, she said.
"It's not just Shane Reti. The prime minister and the minister of finance need to take responsibility for the reckless and irresponsible cuts to our health system. They need to learn from it and give New Zealanders the increased investment that we need to ensure our health and public services can be relied on."
The head of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, Paul Goulter, said people were sicker because they were not getting equitable and affordable access to primary and community health - which was in turn impacting the under-resourced hospital system.
New Zealand Nurses Organisation chief executive Paul Goulter at a rally in May 2024. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
"As far as we can tell the impacts are writ in stone and so its going to be very difficult to dislodge them. We'd like to think that an incoming minister would have a complete rethink around what's needed to address our failing health system but that's in the lap of the government."
Reti's role as health minister was hamstrung by the government's bean-counting mentality towards the sector, Goulter said.
It had become widely accepted that the health system was under-resourced and under-funded and a change in minister would be of little comfort to patients unable to access adequate care, he said.
Reti's time in the role had been characterised by his deep understanding of health and his transparency when making tough calls relating to the sector, General Practice New Zealand chair Bryan Betty said.
The new minister would have to work to get up to speed with complexity of the issues facing the health system, he said.
"The funding model is out of date and that needs to be looked at with urgency. Workforce is a particular problem. Shortages of general practitioners and nursing in the primary care sector is of prime concern and we've had five years of continual re-organisation and change and that does need to come to an end."
It was imperative that Brown moved quickly to address the uncertainty that had hampered progress in the sector in recent years, Betty said.
Record resources had gone into the health sector and the focus was now on delivering the outcomes, he said.
He wanted Brown to speed up access to health services.
The prime minister said his minister had good experience managing large organisations, a good understanding of patients' expectations, and was "up for the challenge".
'Very long way to go'
Speaking with Morning Report on Monday morning, Brown acknowledged he was not yet fully across all the issues facing the health sector.
"Look, I haven't been fully briefed on all the issues. I'm heading to Wellington right now today to meet with officials to get across all the issues. Look, there'll be plenty of issues that I need to get across."
But he was determined to improve access to services such as GPs and elective surgery as quickly as possible.
"The focus here is on delivery. We need to deliver quality and timely access to healthcare for all New Zealanders. Shane Reti was - is a great New Zealander. He's done a great job, but ultimately, the focus that New Zealanders want us to be focused on is on delivery of healthcare and that's going to be my focus - putting patients first in every single decision that I make as minister of health."
Quicker access to GPs was "an absolute commitment", Brown said.
"My granddad lives in rural New Zealand and it takes many weeks sometimes for him and many other New Zealanders to be able to see a GP - that needs to be turned around. We need to look at all of the things that need to be done to make accessing a GP faster and sooner so that people can get that access that they need. So that's the focus that I'll be having."
He would not rule out further restructuring, despite criticising Labour's reforms during and after the acute phase of the pandemic.
Simeon Brown. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER
"There's been years of restructuring, we've got workforce challenges, we have delivery challenges, and my focus is making sure it delivers for New Zealanders… We can spend a long time talking about the structure. What I'm focused on is on delivery…
"If the structure needs changing, yes, we'll absolutely fix it. But what I'm focused on is making sure that it's delivering the outcomes New Zealanders need… It's getting better, but there's a very long way to go."
As for the planned new hospital in Dunedin, which the coalition government limited spending on - a move described by locals as a broken promise - Brown said he was "very committed" to the project.
"There's some key decisions that need to be made in coming weeks and months on that project. I'll be working very closely with the Minister of Infrastructure Chris Bishop on that, but what I would say is we are putting hundreds of millions of dollars more into that hospital.
"I think we announced an extra $300 million end of last year into that project. It's going through a re-scoping exercise."
The new medical school in Waikato was one of the issues he was yet to be briefed on.
Brown said he did not have private medical insurance.
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