Executive Director's column: A season for new opportunities

It’s August. It’s cold, it’s wet and there’s nothing good to see in the news. Instead, I’m fielding media queries about the 25% increase in complaints to the Health and Disability Commissioner.

However, you’ll be reading this in September. The Wellington northerly should be back, the skies will be lighter, temperatures rising and – my profound hope – the worst of the winter surge will be behind us.

Which is why I’m disposed to writing a column that is more optimistic than my current mood. So, first item of good news…

Having a single employer instead of 20 across our network of hospitals is already showing potential to achieve better, and quicker, system-wide outcomes for you. We have already picked up significant pieces of unfinished business from the MECA negotiations as priority items. One is addressing the gender pay gap; another is achieving fair terms and conditions for shift workers.

The mix of interim and permanently employed Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand (HNZ) staff who have responsibility for this work (former chief executives, HR leads, and employment relations managers from the business formerly known as TAS) are better equipped and supported to tackle these issues. We have a very long list of ‘to-do’ items, and have already started regular meetings to progress them.

We have also had some positive responses to concerns we have raised about the uneven application and response to the winter surge payments – an early lesson that what’s agreed at the centre doesn’t necessarily trickle down promptly to the districts. Also, that delegation across HNZ need some work.

HNZ has agreed to talk some more about the previous employers’ unilateral decision to remove the automatic five-year CME accumulation arrangement, which was applied back in 2020, when our borders closed.

It is tempting to suggest that the abrupt removal of the five-year CME accumulation was a last gasp of a dying system, and that the fresh fields on which HNZ is being built offer reason for hope – and that our proposal, that the return to the MECA standard arrangements should be gradual and well-signposted rather than abrupt and unheralded, should stand. Time will tell – and it will be a decent test for your new employer.

Meanwhile, remember that the MECA still entitles every member who wishes to accumulate CME funds for longer than three years to request this. Clause 36 outlines the process, and your local industrial officer can help if you need it. At the dentists’ conference in July, we quietly launched our latest publication, Tooth be told: The case for universal dental care in Aotearoa New Zealand. You can find it on our website, and we’ll happily send you a hard copy if you’d like one. I suggest you make an appointment with your local MP and take it as a gift. Everyone loves a present!

With the 2023 general election looming, now is a good time to think about how you’d like our health system to be funded, and how you’d like health workforce investment to be improved and supported over the coming years. All the political parties should have something to say about these things, but none of them have the depth of knowledge and experience that you – as senior doctors and dentists – can bring. Rest assured, we continue to educate and advocate for a system where best evidence and clinically led decisions drive provision and development of services, but you too can (and should) have your say. Think about what matters most to you – and how best you can shape the larger political discussions about the kind of health system we need, as opposed to the one we have.

Both health funding and workforce pressures will loom large as discussion topics at our Annual Conference, to be held in Wellington on 24–25 November. We are hosting a second art exhibition at the Academy of Fine Arts (launch party on 23 November), and we’re exploring the possibility of hosting a screening of Dr Paul Trotman’s documentary film Behind the Mask. Our conferences are always full of camaraderie, information-sharing, politics and good times. It would be great to see you there.

There will also be constitutional remits on the table this year, and an opportunity to hear from and speak to the Minister of Health. Places will be limited, so make sure to register soon if you haven’t already (you can find out more on the ASMS website at www.asms.org.nz/event/asms-annual-conference).

Sarah Dalton | Executive Director