Health NZ – Te Whatu Ora insists a hiring freeze does not extend to the frontline. But some workers in the health sector say the barriers to hiring doctors are so high they are effectively a freeze. Hospitals and specialist services say they face barriers to hiring new doctors, despite assurances that a hiring freeze does not apply to frontline jobs.
Health NZ introduced restrictions on new hires and staffing levels in April to address overspending, and on June 13 confirmed a complete halt to recruitment for all non-frontline roles. Chief executive Margie Apa said at the time that the pause applied to hospital roles that were not “patient-facing” and public health roles that were not “community-facing”. But the Herald has heard reports from around the country of clinical positions not being filled, replacements being denied or delayed, and all hires needing signoff from high-ranking officials.
“It feels like a freeze from the frontline,” said Dr Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS). Members were reporting multiple hurdles to filling specialist vacancies, she said. In some cases, they had reached the reference-checking stage and been told they needed to pause.
Some members said they had been told they needed special permission to fill vacancies that were part of their existing, budgeted staffing levels. “It is just weird,” Dalton said. “There is this discourse at one level, ‘Don’t worry we won’t to.
