New documents show then-Health New Zealand chairman Lester Levy overruled chief executive Margie Apa after she told the Health Minister nurses had to be let go to help fix the entity’s budget blowout. A briefing from Apa to Health Minister Dr Shane Reti on June 7, released as part of a Health NZ document dump this week, discusses measures to help the entity on to “sustainable financial footing” after it recorded a near-$1 billion deficit in the year to June and was staring down the barrel of a near-$1.8b deficit in the current financial year if changes weren’t made.
Apa warned “substantial increases” in nurses employed by Health NZ in the 2023/24 financial year meant “little to no growth is affordable for 2024/25 and in some areas reductions will be needed”. The suggestion Health NZ would cut down its nurse workforce conflicted with the priorities set by Commissioner Lester Levy, who had promised to protect the “frontline” from cuts. Speaking to the Herald after the document release, Levy said he first articulated his priorities concerning the frontline’s protection from spending cuts on June 14 and June 23 as then-board chairman and claimed Apa had changed her mind.
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