Public hospital workers bear brunt of financial belt-tightening – ASMS

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“Public hospital staff are clearly bearing the brunt of the Government’s belt-tightening in the health sector,” says Ian Powell, Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS).

“The latest information from the State Services Commission (SSC) shows that public health sector wages and salaries have fallen well below the inflation rate over the past five years.  As well, there is now a significant and growing gap between public health sector pay packets and what people are earning in the private sector.”

Mr Powell was commenting on publication of the SSC’s report, Human Resource Capability, which is available online.

In the year to June 2015, pay packets increased by 1.8% in the private sector and 1.2% in the overall public sector.  However, pay rises for people working in the public health system averaged just 0.5%. That pattern is also reflected in data for the past five years, where private sector wages and salaries increased by 10.4% on average over that period but public sector pay packets overall increased by just 7.5%, and those working in public health received even less at 6.4%.  The Consumer Price Index rose by 9.4% over the same period.

“The public health system is once again the poor cousin when it comes to paying people fairly and adequately,” says Mr Powell.

“This is very concerning given the increasingly high workloads that senior doctors and other health professionals are shouldering as hospitals are forced to do more with less.  We know our public hospitals are strapped for cash, but it’s the doctors and others who are holding the public health system together at the expense of their own health and wellbeing.”

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He pointed to a recent ASMS survey on ‘presenteeism’, which showed senior doctors and dentists in New Zealand’s public hospitals are routinely going to work when they are ill:

“At the same time, we’re seeing big pay rises going to district health board chief executives and politicians, and these seem to be out of kilter with what the people on the front line of health care are receiving.”

A recent SSC report on remuneration movements for chief executives in the public sector showed that a number of district health board bosses had received large salary increases in 2014/15.  At the top of the scale, the salary band for Capital & Coast’s chief executive rose from $490,000 to $500,999 in 2013/14 to a band range of $570,000 to $579,999 in 2014/15 – an increase of about 15%, give or take 3%.

Auckland DHB’s chief executive gained about 12%, according to the SSC, although the DHB itself claims this does not take into account issues to do with the timing of ‘at risk’ payments.  The two other big winners were the chief executives at Waikato and Northland DHBs, who are reported to have gained about 11% and 10% respectively.

The average salary band increase across all DHB chief executives was 3.5% – significantly more than the 0.5% average pay rise recorded for people working in public health in the year to June 2015.  At the same time, the media reported that politicians had received pay rises ranging from 3.11% to 4.05% .

“The widening gap between public and private sector employees will no doubt already be making the public health sector a less attractive area to work in and, given the longstanding shortages in some areas of the senior medical workforce and the extra workloads many people are taking on, the Government needs to demonstrate consistency and fairness.

“The pay rises being given to chief executives and politicians simply fuel expectations that people at the sharp end of delivering health care will also receive a decent pay rise in the period ahead.”

10 COMMENTS

  1. Pity the Unions don’t charge National with reckless un-announced aggressive Austerity policies he has been using quietly without telling us all firstly.

    This is the system Jonkey uses all the time, he uses policies that are put into place without revealing them till they are operating, like a born cheater and lair he is.

  2. It is important to have a thriving private health sector if you are working in the public sphere. It keeps the public sector honest. If the government pays poorly, people bugger off to private.

    That is why in the Australia with a healthy private sector subsidised by tax breaks, the pay is so much better than NZ. Why the NZ sectors with healthy private work in NZ, such as ACC/radiologists get paid better in the public system.

    The ASMS should advocate for its members and be a proper union and not be a shrill for the left-wing.When I read its website, it’s definitely not politically neutral; unfortunately to the deteriment of its members. I won’t forget when Helen Kelly stabbed the Junior Doctors Union in the back to cover for her Labour party mates.
    No wonder the Unions are loosing popularity, we wonder who they serve: their members or the political careers of Union leaders. Parallels with the corruption scandal of Unions in Australia.

    • Access to healthcare should not depend on the depths of one’s pockets or insurance cover. I have said before this one area where Labour could make headway. There are believed to be over 100000 people with chronic and debilitating conditions who cannot even get onto a waiting list.

      My wife works in a DHB aND staff are expected to do more and more with fewer resources. They are treated like dirt by managers and morale is at rock bottom. Bullying is endemic. The emphasis is all on meeting government / MOH targets regardless of whether these benefit the patient. It is all smoke and mirrors. I also have to say that union, PSA, in this case is useless. It provides minimal support to its members no matter how badly treated they are.

      I will give 100% support to a LP that shows it can make effective change.

      • I work in the Public Health System because I want to and I think it is a worthwhile vocation and the reason I got into medicine. I am paid well (better than NZ cabinet ministers) but I have colleagues who leave the public system to work privately which pays much more (two to three times) without the headaches of hospital politics. I am not resentful of these colleagues as I know it keeps my salary higher in the public system here in Australia because people are prepared to walk, if they are fed up and morale is low. I can leave too and not be trapped in a hopeless situation.

        You can’t have high wages and a fully public system, sorry. When you have a monopoly employer, and you have nowhere else to go, they screw you over, economics 101.

      • My husband also works at a DHB. Again no pay rises for 5 years ( if it’s under the rise in cost of living how can it be anything but a pay cut?) There is also a hiring numbers cap (can’t remember the name for it) so -ever though 3 very experienced workers have left his dept none have been replaced – and like your wife- the level of MOH target related work has exponentially increased. Another area that is sucking money + resources (and DHB staff time) is contracting out. How many tens of thousands go for a few weeks work which could be used for a new staff member at say $70K? They had NO review last year and when their immediate manager asked those more senior about it he was told to bugger off. And -to top it all off – the ‘retiring’ CEO was given $90,000 as a parting gift after receiving more than $500,000 a years salary.

    • When has the private sector ever kept the public sector honest? I mean, great rhetoric but really – one instance please. Consider it a challenge as I’ve already got a counter -SERCO anyone?

      • They don’t keep them honest on purpose. It’s competition. If you have choices on where to go as a worker, your employer is less likely to exploit you. For example, look at the poor overstayers working illegally, afraid to go to authorities and other employers.

        Monopolies are bad in general.

        • Competition would not help migrant workers (I think you’ll find rather than overstayers) exploited by employers lacking in the principles of fairness. Concepts without backup are just rhetoric – that whole ‘private sector keeping the public sector honest’ is a concept that’s been around a while but still I see more instances of the reverse: private companies being kept honest because of the public sector giving a better alternative – but obviously the biggest force to keep any company honest is actually what has always been – government will and legislative back up. A public service organisation is hardly a monopoly in the same way as a private business – they are (or should be) there to provide a service while a company is there primarily to make a profit. I would actually like an example of this as – as I’ve said – I just haven’t seem any evidence of it.

          • I have a personal anecdote. I colleague of mine just resigned to go fully private. Many consultant doctors in Australia work part-time in the public sector (VMO). It works for public hospitals, if they don’t have enough money for a full-timer and also for private doctors- they receive referrals for private work. This colleague in the same field as me, he earns 7 figures in private. He does public because he enjoys interactions with colleagues, interesting medicine. He was fed up with public hospital and issues with rosters, so he quit. Most of my colleagues are part-timers, out of their choice and the public hospitals can’t run without them and their contribution. The private hospital is across the road and they generally work in both systems. They can also be self-employed in their own clinics.
            With this kind of arrangement, doctors are like herding cats… push to hard, they leave. Look at the complaints from others above, you think they can leave? Most likely, they have commitments to mortgages, family and there are no great options for better pay and conditions. If they had a better offer, they will leave. They are stuck in other words.

            The comments above about overstayer workers are correct and is an extreme example to make a point. If you have no choice of employer, and the employers knows it …..they treat you like a slave.

            • Ahh, I get your argument. But that still doesn’t support the ‘private companies keeping public services honest’ rhetoric even with the coda “because of competition”. If anything competition can make conditions worse(remembering that in the real world there is no such thing as a level playing field). Here’s an example – postal workers. Before it was deregulated it was a good company to work for, with good conditions. It was regimented but effective. Now we have 2 companies (as a conglomerate from overseas bought out all the independent companies ) and conditions have gone down at the govt run one, and conditions at DX are worse. Public service has also gone down as the attitute goes “nobody posts anymore” – and it becomes self filling as usage goes down due to poor service- but both companies make profit. You see without political will to run a decent service DX can take the easy, profitable urban runs and leave the harder more expensive ones to NZPost. And this also happens with ops here – the more expensive, complicated cases are done in public. There is a place for private but – unless I can have an example I say it’s just rhetoric that they keep business honest. Final example to the opposite: life before public services.

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