Consultants and contractors are the winners from the large-scale axing of health workers, pocketing nearly $3 million in precious health dollars since late 2023.

Between October 2023 and February 2025, Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora paid out $2.8 million to external contractors and consultants to help the organisation manage the restructure of various teams (as revealed by NZ Herald today).

During that time Health NZ Te Whatu Ora axed hundreds of workers across the organisation including IT specialists, those promoting child health, workers in community and mental health services, and in Māori and Pacific health services.

"This is a waste of money as none of these cuts needed to be made and our public health system is the worst for them," said Fleur Fitzsimons National Secretary for the Public Service Association for Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

"The restructures were all driven by the Government’s blunt approach to finding money down the back of every sofa to fund its tax cuts for landlords, big tobacco and others and not what was good for the health system."

"Without doubt Health NZ will rely on more consultants in the future as its proposing to slash its People and Culture services (human resources) by 21% or 338 roles.

"The public health system has been starved of money by this government. It should have been expanding the Health NZ workforce and not paying expensive consultants to help lay off so many loyal workers. It’s a slap in the face for those shown the door."

The 16 consultants used include major companies like KPMG, Robert Walters, PwC, Momentum and Buddle Findlay.

"It’s ironic that this money was spent when National made such big promises to cut down on consultant spending during the election campaign in 2023."

Today’s revelation comes on top of the $10.8m spent on consultants for restructures by 20 other agencies to December 2024 as revealed by BusinessDesk. This includes $3m by Kāinga Ora alone which has axed hundreds of workers.

"The PSA remains opposed to these cuts and will resist any further downsizing of the public health workforce which ultimately impacts patient care at the frontline."

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