Ministry staff found out about 135 planned job losses today

Around 135 staff at the Ministry of Health will lose their jobs in the next 15 months under plans for a restructuring unveiled today.

The proposed new structure was unveiled on the staff intranet this afternoon. All employees also received individual letters about the restructuring.

It is a response to Government plans to reduce bureaucracy and move funds to frontline clinical services.

When health minister Tony Ryall made announcements, based on recommendations in the Ministerial Review Group Report, on 21 October 2009, he said the ministry had indicated it would be able to reduce its staff by 185 over the following 20 months (to July 2011).

Today staff found out the details of the restructuring that will see a reduction of approximately 35 positions in this financial year to 1 July, and a loss of a further around 100 jobs by July 2011, director-general of health Stephen McKernan says in a media release.

The Ministry of Health currently employs around 1420 full-time equivalent staff, which would reduce to around 1290 by July 2011.

Staff consultation now underway

Mr McKernan would not comment on the plans, as they are now subject to staff consultation, before being finalised in May. The number of redundancies will be confirmed then.

Doing the maths

The ministry had 1675 full-time equivalents budgeted for in December 2008 but by June 2009 was operating with around 1475 staff, through not filling vacancies and redundancies, according to Mr McKernan's overview in the Ministry of Health Annual Report 2009.

That June figure of 1475 staff was reduced by another 50 jobs between June 2009 until now (1420 staff).

Today's announcement sees a further 135 job losses, bringing the overall total for this financial year and the next to the around 180 job losses announced in October.

DHBs will also lose staff

Plans are under way for developing a shared services agency that will see some administrative tasks managed nationally, instead of being duplicated in the 21 DHBs.

This is another outcome of the Ministerial Review Group report and is expected to lead to more than 300 job losses in DHBs.