Health NZ has paid out more than $250,000 to Bay of Plenty and Lakes staff who took voluntary redundancy after it was offered in August.

A union president says the figure represents “a lot of people” who were “vital” to making sure a hospital functions.

Health NZ chief executive Margie Apa confirmed in an August email to staff a voluntary redundancy scheme was being put in place for some workers.

She said Health NZ needed to move towards being more efficient and focus its resources on frontline healthcare.

The Public Service Association union said at the time that Health NZ was “being forced to meet the Government’s unhinged and unplanned defunding of healthcare, no matter the consequences”.

The union said the country stood to lose workers who kept medical records safe and scheduled scans and operations.

How many staff members applied for voluntary redundancy?

Information received under the Official Information Act said Health NZ announced an opportunity on August 28 to eligible staff to consider voluntary redundancy, ahead of a more formal change process “in the coming months”.

On November 27, Health NZ confirmed plans to cut “a large number of roles”.

Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora interim chief human resources officer Fiona McCarthy said staff employed under individual employment agreements or covered by two specific Public Service Association collective agreements were eligible to apply for voluntary redundancy.

The two agreements covered an estimated 15,000 employees nationally, though not all were eligible to take up the offer.

Frontline clinical staff were not eligible for voluntary redundancy and other criteria and exclusions applied.

Health NZ received 70 expressions of interest from staff on the Bay of Plenty and Lakes payrolls, and made 62 offers, according to the information released under the Act.

The neighbouring health districts cover Tauranga, Whakatāne, Rotorua, and Taupō public hospitals.

Nationally, 863 expressions of interest were received from staff and 670 offers were made.

As of November 8, $251,082 in redundancy payouts had been made to Bay of Plenty and Lakes staff who were paid through the local payroll and accepted voluntary redundancy.

This figure excluded final salary or leave entitlements.

The information said staff who had accepted offers would have varying end dates, and the spend would not reflect the number of accepted offers, as payment was only made when employment ended.

In April, NZME reported that almost $400,000 was paid out to seven Health NZ employees in the districts whose roles were made redundant due to the health reform.

Cuts are ‘relentless’

Public Service Association president Virgil Iraia - who lives in Rotorua and works at Tauranga Hospital - told the Bay of Plenty Times he is part of the data and digital team which had lost staff from voluntary redundancies.

He said this made the remaining team’s work “a bit more pressured”.

“Obviously when we lose people and we can’t replace them, the onus and the expectation is for others to pick up [the work].”

He said the team had done this because it wanted the hospital running “as it should”.

Public Service Association president Virgil Iraia - who lives in Rotorua and works at Tauranga Hospital - pictured at the PSA congress in September. Photo / Supplied

“We’ve had to come in and support our colleagues at Rotorua Hospital just because there’s been redundancies. Both teams are down across the two districts,” he said in December.

He said the $251,082 figure represented “a lot of people, a lot of salaries”.

“We’ve lost people in terms of FTE [fulltime equivalent] that are all vital to making sure a hospital functions accordingly.”

He said proposed cuts to the health sector had been “relentless” in the run-up to Christmas.

“Health is a vital service so we’re just trying to pressure the Government ... to rethink their decision around these cuts to Te Whatu Ora.”

In response, McCarthy said staff had chosen to apply for voluntary redundancy “having reflected on their own personal circumstances and what is right for them”.

“As we accept each voluntary redundancy, the impact of the person leaving, and workloads are taken into account. In some areas, a change to how the service works may be required. In other areas roles may be replaced if important to continuity.”