Health NZ’s new commissioner Professor Lester Levy will front up today on how he will achieve more than $1 billion in savings at the under-fire organisation. Levy and chief executive Margie Apa are holding a press conference at North Shore Hospital this morning. Health Minister Dr Shane Reti yesterday sacked the remaining members of the Health NZ board and put Levy in charge - the strongest ministerial intervention available to him under the legislation which established Health NZ.
He said Health NZ was overspending by $130 million each month and wanted Levy to implement a savings drive of $1.4b. Reti blamed 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”.
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