Te Whatu Ora’s quarterly accounts raise serious questions about the Government’s claimed financial challenges in the health sector, according to New Zealand Council Trade Unions economist Craig Renney.

“The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) highlighted at the Budget that the health sector desperately needs more funding. The report released yesterday shows the cuts to health services will go much deeper than previously advertised,” Renney said.

The report released by Te Whatu Ora states that $2 billion worth of savings need to be targeted in health in the 2024 fiscal year.

“That’s a huge potential cut and is clearly not possible from just efficiencies.”

Renney said New Zealand spends $14 billion on hospital services annually and another $9 billion on primary health services like GPs.

“The $2 billion ‘savings’ are significantly more than the $130m a month the Government previously claimed. It’s also unclear if this gap is a one-off or ongoing, which would require savings year after year in health.”

Renny also called into question the Government only using $1.6 billion of its $3.4 billion capital budget.

“This begs questions about why ministers are claiming that Dunedin Hospital is now unaffordable when the Government has underspent by $1.8 billion in one year alone.”

Transparency around why equitable funding has not taken place in the health sector and why the saving of $2 billion was necessary considering when the Budget was announced earlier this year, they had signalled that health had sufficient spending, Renney said.

“Ministers clearly have questions to answer about the real nature of the savings now being required in the health sector and why,” Renny said.

- SunLive