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File photo. Photo: 123RF
More jobs could be on the line at Health NZ - this time in its people and culture team.
The agency confirmed it began a "formal change process" on Monday, consulting with staff and unions on proposed changes to the team.
If you are affected contact Lauren.Crimp@rnz.co.nz
"That will be carefully considered before final decisions are made," said interim chief human resources officer Fiona McCarthy.
"Health NZ is moving toward a sustainable future for New Zealand healthcare, including ensuring we can live within our budget."
The people and culture team services more than 80,000 staff.
Health NZ said it was speaking with staff about the proposal on Monday, and the consultation document would be released on Tuesday. It would not yet say how many staff could be affected.
The agency has in recent months been proposing changes throughout the organisation, with more job cuts likely to come, in a bid to save hundreds of millions of dollars.
At the end of March, it agreed to stop proposed restructures in public health and two divisions of its planning and funding department after "cost savings were achieved".
The restructures were the subject of a legal challenge by the PSA, and subsequent mediation.
In an email to staff, McCarthy apologised for the "increased level of anxiety" created by the change processes.
Health NZ was pressing on with other proposed restructuring in its Pacific, Data and Digital, Planning & Funding and Procurement & Supply Chain teams.
Those plans were due to be scrutinised by the Employment Relations Authority at hearings on 22 and 23 April, unless Health NZ and the PSA came to an agreement beforehand.
Cuts to help manage billion dollar deficit
In December, then chief executive Margie Apa announced Health NZ would be extending its cost-cutting measures to mid-2027.
At the same time, it revised down its expected deficit for 2024-25 to $1.1 billion, from the $1.7b forecast several months previously.
Change was needed to "live within budget", Apa said.
An independent financial review by Deloitte, released last month, found the agency had lost control of spending.
The report identified why Health NZ last year went from forecasting a $500 million surplus to a $500 million deficit, that then grew to more than $1 billion.
It talked about "missing" plans, unheeded warnings and that "there was never buy-in" from operational teams to make savings even as financial troubles loomed.
But it also said some factors in the budget blowout were outside the agency's control - including the 30 percent rise of nurses' wages over three years.
The same day the report was released, health minister Simeon Brown announced a major overhaul of the health system including reinstating a board and "partnering" with the private sector.
Despite core operating funding almost doubling between 2014 and 2024 - and huge growth in the health workforce - productivity was "declining", he said.
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said the fact Health NZ was cutting jobs to save money showed the system needed "much greater funding".
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