‘You're not an expert’ - health boss fires back over whether delayed patients at risk
Friday, 7 March 2025
This story was originally published in August 2024. It has been republished in light of the news that Health Minister Simeon Brown will appoint a board for Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ, replacing commissioner Lester Levy.
Can he fix it? The new, all-powerful kingpin of Health New Zealand says: Yes, he can.
Lester Levy was parachuted in as Commissioner tasked with resuscitating our crisis-stricken health system.
Levy made some promises on the Tova Podcast from Stuff, and hit back on claims from the health frontline about staff shortages and a hiring freeze.
Police plans to pull back from the most serious mental health callouts have the new health boss spooked. “That is a serious concern,” Levy told the Tova podcast.
It will mean a greater reliance on an already stretched health system. “We have to have an alternative in place when and if this goes ahead,” said Levy.
More health staff will be needed, he said,
Asked how many people would be recruited to cover any shortfall left by Police, Levy said it will be “quite significant… not thousands, but it could be up to 100, maybe more.”
He even says he’ll get back on the tools himself - working alongside doctors at Auckland City’s Emergency Department.
Levy said he’d be “happy to” when asked if he would go and stand alongside these doctors and do a shift in ED.
He’s also promising an end to the common practice at some hospitals - like Waikato - of ambulance ramping.
That’s when ambulances basically park patients up in hospital car parks because there isn’t room to offload them into the Emergency Department.
“We can definitely sort that out,” said Levy, who committed to no more ramping in 18 months to two years from now. “Yeah, we should easily do that.”
Levy’s disputing claims from the health frontline that a recruitment freeze is preventing them from filling critical clinical roles.
Asked about doctors feeling gaslit by him because he’s saying all clinical roles are being replaced when the frontline experience is different, Levy said health was seeing record recruitment.
“2600 people were hired in May and June during the so-called recruitment freeze,” he said.
Examples were put to Levy from doctors raising concerns about staffing shortages, including one senior doctor who said patients are coming to harm due to excessive waits in and out of hospital.
Asked if he agreed patients were coming to harm, Levy said he’d like to see the evidence.
Levy has commissioned a review of patient safety and quality which he says will give him the “objective” evidence he requires.
The Breast Cancer Foundation has also raised concerns that cancer patients are waiting too long for treatment, putting them at risk of their cancer returning.
Asked if that suggested lives were being put at risk by delays overseen by Te Whatu Ora, Levy fired back: “You're not an expert on health, quality and safety.”
Told that it was from experts at the Breast Cancer Foundation and based on evidence, Levy replied, “I guess one thing that's slightly different between you and me is that you're happy to accept subjective information.”
To hear the full interview with Lester Levy - including whether he backs the plea from Starship Children’s hospital to keep 7AA in the Oranga Tamariki Act, whether he thinks ambulances should be fully funded by government in light of the upcoming strike action and whether he thinks the CEO of Health NZ should lose her job - listen here.