MPs have gone head to head on health in a special debate about the recent resignation of Health New Zealand’s top boss.
Margie Apa resigned as chief executive last Friday, shortly before Dr Nicholas Jones confirmed he would also step down as Director of Public Health.
It followed Health Commissioner Lester Levy telling The Post newspaper he wanted a chief executive that did stuff, instead of writing about it.
The Labour Party asked for an urgent debate on the developments on Tuesday, using it to take aim at the coalition’s handling of the health system.
“What we know is that this government has continued to change and undermine the leadership of health in this country and have left it in chaos,” Labour’s Peeni Henare said.
“We know that Margie Apa’s resignation and Dr Jones’ resignation are only two of the high-profile ones. We know that there are so many more in the health sector who have already walked away. And where do they go? Well, we know a large amount of them have gone to Australia.”
Henare said the coalition did not care or respect health workers enough to back good leadership, saying Apa was being used as “a scapegoat” after being publicly undermined.
“Not only did the commissioner undermine Margie Apa; he also did it publicly. He did it in select committee hearings, he did it through the media and refused a one-on-one conversation to support Margie Apa in the important role that she had to lead our health sector.”
Health Minister Simeon Brown, who took up the beleaguered portfolio in the prime minister’s new year reshuffle, said Apa had come to her decision to quit on her own.
Far from taking on any of the criticism, Brown said the Labour Party had only themselves to blame.
“What they need is a mirror, because actually they’re the ones who put our health system into turmoil. They are the ones who decided to restructure our health system during the middle of a pandemic.
“So stop lecturing and have a look in the mirror to the decisions the opposition made when they were last in government.”
The Green Party’s Hūhana Lyndon said Apa’s resignation was a huge loss, calling out Lester Levy’s comments about her in a recent news article.
“The commissioner was quoted as saying that he wanted a chief executive who could build a team and lead a team that has got serious implementation capacity; that can, instead of writing about what they’re going to do, actually do it.
“Meinga, meinga! Shame on the commissioner to dare undermine Margie Apa, that taonga that has delivered so much for her people.”
ACT’s Todd Stephenson said the Labour Party set up Margie Apa to fail.
“She was given an impossible task and she did it to the best of her abilities but when you decide to make such radical changes, in the middle of a pandemic, that were not well thought through, you were actually setting someone up for a very, very difficult job.”
New Zealand First’s Jenny Marcroft agreed Apa had an impossible job.
“No leader could thrive under Labour’s poorly designed health reforms – the centralisation of a health system. That structure that was put in place in the middle of a pandemic, where health resources were already stretched, basically at breaking point.”
Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer raised her concerns this was all headed towards privatisation in the debate.
“The reality is that we have, sadly, a government that is leaning and edging towards a whole lot of slashing and cutting for the purpose of moving Aotearoa New Zealanders into privatisation of healthcare and that move will absolutely devastate the struggling families.
“It will devastate families who are already crushed by skyrocketing rents, who are already struggling to pay and afford groceries, the soaring power bills. Imagine those of our whānau with tamariki who are trying to get into doctors but they’re unable to pay the fee.”
Levy has only six months left to sort out the health system though he has already warned things will be far from fixed by then.
Margie Apa’s resignation comes four months before her contract was up.
Dr Dale Bramley is acting chief executive while her replacement is found.
rnz.co.nz
