Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Rob Campbell: Former Health NZ Chair on the deficit figures for Health NZ

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Rob Campbell: Former Health NZ Chair on the deficit figures for Health NZ · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It turns out that Health New Zealand's books aren't quite
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: as bad as we thought, but the numbers are still
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: pretty terrible. The projected deficit for the twenty four to
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: twenty five financial year has reduced from one point seven
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: billion to one point one billion. In October, they said
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: it'd be one point seven. Now they're saying it'll be
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: one point one. The agency has extended its cost cutting
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: regime by another year to twenty twenty seven, when it's
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: expected to return to surpus. Rob Campbell is the former
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Health and z chaeries with us this morning. Rob, Good morning,
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  Speaker 1: all real a right, good to have you on the show. Hey,
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  Speaker 1: what are you reading into this? I mean, how can
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: they not get the numbers right? Two months ago we
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: were told that there would be they would need five
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: hundred million extra than they are actually going to need.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty deatic, isn't it. But you've got to
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: see the history. I'm afraid to be a bit boring this.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: It's not an issue that was created by Tafatu Wara.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: It's an issue that drags over from the previous arrangements
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  Speaker 2: between the district Health Boards and the Ministry of Health
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: and in some ways, it's part of putting it right.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: How much more do we need to spend to get
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  Speaker 1: it right? I mean, how much is going to be
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  Speaker 1: enough in health when we're spending thirty billion a year.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Well, the truth is no one knows the answer to
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: that question. But what we do know is a number
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: of things. First, there are some things like the big
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: one is the holiday pay issue, which has to be
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: done because it's a legal requirement. No one quite new
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: and probably still does know exactly what the cost impact
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  Speaker 2: of that is, but when it is finally ascertained, it's
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: a number that has to be found. Secondly, there are
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: some increases which derive from basic requirements, again legal ones
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  Speaker 2: such as pay equity and other pay type requirements, which
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: again have to be met and can be projected, but
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  Speaker 2: we're badly projected in the previous estimates that were they.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Then we come into the area of much bigger arns,
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  Speaker 2: and these are particularly We know there is something like
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: fourteen billion dollars worth of undone sorry deferred maintenance within
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: the system because of the way it was run before.
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  Speaker 2: This is a terrible load on the system. It can't
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  Speaker 2: all be dealt with in one hit, And maybe some
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  Speaker 2: of it will never be dealt with. But that is
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: an issue which cutting staff and making the other cuts
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: that are being made simply can't do anything about. And
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  Speaker 2: then finally there is the new capital requirements outstanding in
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  Speaker 2: the new hospital and the needn in other places again
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  Speaker 2: where need has been demonstrated but the system has not
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: been estimating or controlling its costs very well. This is
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  Speaker 2: all an outcome of what we needed to change.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but those estimates that you're talking about very quickly,
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  Speaker 1: who's making these estimates? How are they getting them so
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  Speaker 1: wrong or old.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: To fartow work. It's caught in the middle of this.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Tafatowora is trying to pull together figures from the plenty
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: eye previous districts sports. That's one part of it, right,
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  Speaker 2: But the main people who have always been in control
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  Speaker 2: of this have been the Ministry of Health and Treasury.
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  Speaker 2: They're the people who have had no changes significantly made
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  Speaker 2: to them in this respect. Help Ministry lost some stuff
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: to fight to Wara, but it's basically the historical people
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: who have got the main responsibility to this, and the
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  Speaker 2: key thing is to fight or the commissioner or however
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: it is organized, can't staff cut and staff restrict costs
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: to make this better.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you very much for being with me this
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  Speaker 1: wanting to appreciate it. Rob Campbell, former Health New Zealand chair,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: on the deficit reduction. Deficit good, but deficit big still bad.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 3:48
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• 3:51
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