After earlier sharing provisional estimates, the 2023/24 deficit for Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora can today be confirmed.
In publishing its annual report, Health NZ has confirmed it ended the financial year with a deficit of $722 million, against a target surplus of $54 million.
The report shows that despite the financial challenges, Health NZ treated and cared for more people across hospital and specialist services than ever before. It also shows:
- More than 1.3 million people visited emergency departments across the motu – an increase of 50,000 on 2022/23.
- Nearly 2.1 million people attended first specialist assessments – an increase of 40,000 on 2022/23.
- Additional medical school places were funded, and Health NZ expanded a voluntary bonding workforce incentive scheme to include anaesthetic technicians and pharmacists.
In 2023/24, Health NZ also invested $1.6 billion in their facilities and equipment and made better than expected progress recruiting clinical frontline staff, including reducing vacancy rates for nurses to about five per cent.
Health NZ chief executive Margie Apa says it’s important to acknowledge all parts of the health sector and their collective contribution, including primary care providers, who are tackling record enrolments.
“There were over 21 million engagements with a GP in 2023/2024 and as at 30 June this year, the number of people enrolled with a GP reached just over five million (5.023m), which is the highest number ever.”
In regard to Health NZ’s finances, Ms Apa says two key factors contributed to the difference between the provisional financial deficit published in early October and the confirmed results.
“Those factors were anticipated redundancy payments and costs allocated for estimated Holidays Act payment remediation.”
Health NZ has also published its Statement of Intent (SOI) and the Statement of Performance Expectations 2024/2025 which outline the medium-term strategic objectives for the organisation and its budget for 2024/25.
“Our revised budget for 2024/25 is a $1.1 billion deficit. This is significantly lower than the $1.76 billion deficit we were heading towards without our cost reduction programme,” Ms Apa says.
“Some of the significant changes made in recent months are having the desired effect, but it is clear further change is needed to live within budget.”
“That is why we are also signalling today a more realistic timeframe to do that within,” Ms Apa says.
“We have revised our reset timeline and will be implementing our cost reduction plan over three years, to get us back to budget by the end of the 2026/27 financial year.
“By making cost reductions over a longer timeframe, we can implement change without compromising our focus on delivery of health targets and mental health and addictions targets.”