Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Health New Zealand's commitment to bolstering specialist palliative care for children has come under scrutiny after promises it was actively recruiting more staff, despite not advertising any jobs.
Health Minister Simeon Brown admits Health New Zealand's claim - and the job advert it eventually posted - were inaccurate, and says he has made his concerns clear to the agency.
Radio New Zealand revealed on Monday that the country's sole publicly-funded paediatric palliative care specialist was on extended leave, affecting Starship Hospital's ability to prescribe drugs to terminally ill children.
At the time of the story, a specialist nurse was also due to leave Starship's palliative care team at the end of March, while another nursing role remained vacant.
Health NZ told RNZ there was money available for an additional specialist and nursing roles and recruitment for both was "underway."
When pressed on where these jobs were being advertised, it declined to provide details.
A job listing seeking a general paediatrician with a "special interest" in palliative care was posted on Health NZ's careers website on Monday morning, after RNZ published its story.
When questioned why a general paediatrician - rather than a specialist - was being sought, Health New Zealand did not respond. The job ad, however, was amended. An experienced paediatric palliative care specialist was now being sought.
Brown said he had been advised the advert and Health NZ's statement were both inaccurate, and he had made clear his concerns to the agency.
"Ultimately, they should be providing accurate information to media when they are responding to queries. And secondly, they have said they are advertising for these roles, they should be advertising accurately for them."
Brown did not know why the mistakes had been made.
Health New Zealand did not respond to questions about why it had told RNZ it was recruiting for a specialist, when it wasn't.
In a statement, it said the inaccurate job advert was the result of "human error."
"Someone had used the wrong template and that meant some incorrect wording was used.
"It remains our intention to recruit for the specialist palliative care role. But we are also open to hearing from generalists with an interest in palliative care with a view to growing their capability over time," a Health New Zealand spokesperson said.
One of the two vacant nursing specialist roles would likely be filled next month. The second role had not yet been advertised.
Labour's associate health spokesperson Peeni Henare described the situation as "appalling".
The failure to recruit staff sooner amounted to a hiring freeze and frontline cuts by stealth, he said.
"We have challenged this government over the past year over the hiring freeze they have put in place, but they have kept denying it, while it's clear that for such a crucial service they were neglectful in their duty of making sure families get the services they need."
He also questioned whether back office cuts made by the government could be to blame for the clerical error.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not respond to questions about whether it was acceptable that Health New Zealand, Brown and himself had been saying recruitment efforts were underway, when that was not actually the case.
"I am not aware of those details. All I am aware of, is that Health New Zealand is actually looking at a model of care of how we can deal with palliative paediatric care… because it's not just the Starship situation, it's also across the country."
There was a shortage of paediatric palliative care specialists globally, he said.
"We've also got to do a better job of trying to attract people to New Zealand that actually can do those jobs. It's incredibly challenging and it's a symptom of some long standing challenges in a number of health workforce areas."
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