Lester Levy Asks Kiwis To Pray For Him – Again

Written By: - Date published: 6:52 pm, August 18th, 2024 - 33 comments
Categories: Christopher Luxon, health, same old national, Shane Reti - Tags: , , ,

Last week Dr Lester Levy, Health NZ Commissioner, ended a talk by invoking Winston Churchill and asking the audience to pray for him:

If you just wonder how you do this job, I am reminded of what Winston Churchill said. If you really want to get to your destination you cannot stop and throw a stone at every barking dog. I just do need to know which dogs matter and I just need to know that whatever happens on the good days on the bad days I am going to resolutely lead this organisation to this destination.

..I need all the help I can get, and so far I’m getting a lot of that. So I’m not a religious person, but if you are, please pray for me.

It turns out, Dr Levy really likes prayers. On 1News this weekend, he ended the interview with:

If you’re religious, pray for me.

And for 1News, Lester echoed some of his talking points from last week, including ideas such as he was going to do whatever it took to get wait times down. He also inferred the debunked point that there was an unexpected deficit of $130 million a year versus National underfunding the health system by that much.

Re: wait times, last week, Levy said the “only reason” he took the job was to get wait times down, and he would do whatever it took to achieve that.

Well, some of you might remember that Luxon’s 9 KPIs include two wait list metrics:

  • Emergency Departments: 95 percent of ED patients admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours
  • Elective treatment: 95 percent of people waiting less than four months

(It also includes reducing beneficiaries on jobseeker by 50,000 and a 75% reduction of households in emergency housing. Luxon is also working on those, by introducing onerous measures on jobseekers – including those on sole parent benefit and supported living)

It’s understandable why Luxon appointed Levy – he is committed to Luxon’s cause and speaks Luxon’s language – jargon and ideas over a sense of groundedness – plus an apparent willingness to repeat misleading talking points.

Perhaps it’s also why Newsroom noted in May “Levy and Luxon (are) ‘made for each other’”.

But more worryingly, Levy spoke at length about how feedback from doctors, nurses and practitioners, was potentially “sabotage” and “resistance” from Health NZ.

Is that the type of paranoia and attitude one wants at the head of Health NZ?

Is this how he is going to lead and manage a team of highly qualified professionals, and how he is going to treat their honest feedback?

One might also recall how he had a go at Te Whatu Ora management last week for leaking a proposal to cut 4492 staff (including doctors and nurses) – despite later admitting that it was a proposal modelling FTE impacts from his budget cut request.

His words to Newsroom:

It was apparently a presentation by a manager who was trying to make a comparison of the amount of savings required by comparing it to FTE. In my view it was a misguided way of trying to make an analogy and is unacceptable.

Ths week, he said one of the risks for the health system was there were many “disenfranchised” people within it.

Dr Lester Levy – you are there to work for our health system – including our valued health practitioners who work very hard for Kiwis, day in, and day out.

Finally, just as I felt last week, Levy is overcomplicating a simple issue. By consistently framing his ideas – and job cuts – as somehow innovative or driven by care for the health system is disingenuous, even as he denigrates health practitioners who speak out.

It’s about time Levy – like his bosses Luxon and Reti – understood that the answer was always what it seemed:

Fund the system as you knew you needed to last year, train doctors, hire nurses, continue investing in our hospitals, technology and infrastructure, and don’t throw money away to landlords and the wealthy – at the expense of public healthcare.

While you’re at it, National-ACT-NZ First: stop implementing pro-tobacco policies and repeating tobacco industry talking points. That will do a hell of a lot for the health care system, doctors, nurses, patients, families and all Kiwis. (This government may remember the $46 billion of benefits that smoke free legislation would have delivered for Kiwis, that Casey Costello just happened to leave out in her repeal of the law.)

There is a reason that only 2 Health NZ Board members were left by the time Luxon and Reti used an excuse to appoint Levy as Health Czar i.e. Health Commissioner – and Levy – a man who reportedly left multiple Health Boards worse for wear, is not going to give us the answer – no matter how much he tries to wring Health NZ to help Luxon achieve those 9 KPIs.

Pray for us, Mr Levy, Luxon and Reti – that your will will not come to be.







33 comments on “Lester Levy Asks Kiwis To Pray For Him – Again ”

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  1. Muttonbird 1
    18 August 2024 at 6:57 pm

    National: There's too much centralisation in the public sector.

    Also National: Here's one performative South African in charge of the entire health system.

  2. Anne 2
    18 August 2024 at 7:11 pm

    Oh God, another Nat lackey twat who thinks he's the bee's knees.

    When they invoke Winston Churchill you just know they are narcissistic wind-bags.

    Levy said the “only reason” he took the job was to get wait lists down.

    Yeah we know how they will do that. Change the criteria so that many on the wait list fall off and/or end up dying before they get their operations. Solution sorted.

    • Mike the Lefty 2.1
      20 August 2024 at 2:15 pm

      Last time National were in power they did get waiting lists down – by removing some names off the list and referring those unlucky people back to their GPs.

      • Belladonna 2.1.1
        20 August 2024 at 2:30 pm

        Still been happening for the last 6 years. Getting a reference to a specialist means leaping through a huge number of hoops – in even getting on the waiting list. The bar keeps rising.

  3. Incognito 3
    18 August 2024 at 8:37 pm

    Central organisation & coordination is vital in Health, as we have seen during the pandemic. The postcode lottery system also needs a central top-down approach.

  4. PsyclingLeft.Always 4
    19 August 2024 at 8:34 am

    ..I need all the help I can get, and so far I’m getting a lot of that. So I’m not a religious person, but if you are, please pray for me.

    It turns out, Dr Levy really likes prayers. On 1News this weekend, he ended the interview with:

    If you’re religious, pray for me.

    Hmm..apart from all his NZ Health diverting/distracting and smoke/mirror blame throwing, is there something a bit Flaky about Dr Levy ?

    I suppose as things become even more bloody for NZ's Health System... will we see the real Dr Levy ..revealed ?

  5. Jenny 5
    19 August 2024 at 9:02 am

    It’s understandable why Luxon appointed Levy – he is committed to Luxon’s cause and speaks Luxon’s language – jargon and ideas over a sense of groundedness – plus an apparent willingness to repeat misleading talking points.

    When will the media be referring to our public health system as the National Party run health ministry?

    As in, a spokesperson for the National Party run health ministry said today……

    (Said in a way to cast doubt on their credibility.)

    They do it for the Gaza public health system.

    • Incognito 5.1
      19 August 2024 at 9:12 am

      I believe Shane Reti appointed Levy.

      • Muttonbird 5.1.1
        19 August 2024 at 9:33 am

        Ian Powell writes about the health system and has a lot to say about the current situation and Levy in particular:

        Unless there is a subsequent change of heart, it is almost certain that it will be Treasury-backed option Dr Lester Levy. He had been considered as Health NZ’s inaugural chair but Little instead opted for Rob Campbell. He was then promoted as Campbell’s eventual replacement but Verrall wisely opted for Poutasi after the prospect of Levy’s appointment rung alarm bells within the health system.

        Now it looks like it’s third time lucky. Levy and Luxon know each other from when the former was chair of the three Auckland district health boards and the latter was Air New Zealand chief executive. The pair share similar communication styles and see things through a similar lens.

        To put it another way, they were made for each other. This is significant because it is the Prime Minister’s department rather than Reti’s health ministry that is handling the appointment process.

        Now, this was only about the appointment of Levy as the new chair after the "resignation" of Karen Poutasi, not the more authoritarian installation of him as commissioner, but Powell at least makes it clear it's a Luxon appointment. Also, this:

        If Levy is appointed Health NZ chair as expected, there will be three main consequences. First, Reti’s position as health minister will be compromised and his credibility with the health workforce reduced, given Levy’s unofficial accountability will be to the Prime Minister. Reti does not share Luxon’s view on what the problem of the health system is. Levy’s style also fails to mesh with Reti’s desire to devolve decision-making within Health NZ.

        https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/05/14/the-politics-behind-pending-health-appointment/

        • Mountain Tui 5.1.1.1
          19 August 2024 at 10:19 am

          Thanks for the quotes, Mutton Bird.

          If the insider view was that Luxon was going to appoint Levy in May as Health Commissioner – but nearly all of the Board had already resigned by July – Luxon and his team thought of a tactic to instead appoint Levy as Health Czar i.e. Commissioner – as a way to re-take the narrative and avoid further appointments.

          Then after that appointment, Levy appointed two "Deputy Commissioners" who just happened to be the only 2 Board members left standing.

          I personally think Labour got it right in this article:

          https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/524299/health-nz-minister-shane-reti-defends-commissioner-decision-as-shorter-path-for-decisions

          Reti denied the move to bring in Levy as a Commissioner instead of being board chair was a way of avoiding having to appoint more board members.

          "Oh, no, not at all … there's been commissioners at DHB level for a long period of time so no, it's a standard process when you're really squeezed and things are getting quite, quite challenging. It's a very serious step to take, and we needed to pull that trigger."

          Labour leader Chris Hipkins took a dismissive view of that.

          "I think it makes a farce of the notion that they sacked the board, given that the only remaining people who were on the board at the time they supposedly sacked them still seem to be there. Everybody else had already resigned.

          "I think it just shows that, again, this was part of a manufactured crisis on the part of the government."

        • Shanreagh 5.1.1.2
          19 August 2024 at 1:23 pm

          Just on the appropos of nothing…in the olden days I worked with Lester Levy.

          In those days he knew his health stuff and it makes a change from the business people (usually men) that are usually the go-to people for NACT. Those who know everything about nothing.

          The pair share similar communication styles and see things through a similar lens.

          To put it another way, they were made for each other.

          Quoted by

          Muttonbird5.1.1

          19 August 2024 at 9:33 am

          LL is streets ahead as a person/communicator than Luxon. Working off a low base of course.

          • Shanreagh 5.1.1.2.1
            19 August 2024 at 2:12 pm

            Actually LL is no slouch as far as it concerns health sector matters and this would be known to Ian Powell who would have worked with him back in those days.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Levy

            I guess what I'm saying is that he will not necessarily be a political appointee bound to find a political solution.

        • Incognito 5.1.1.3
          19 August 2024 at 7:00 pm

          All good. Undoubtedly, Ian P knows the inner working of NZ Health well. However, my inner pedant would argue that formally speaking the responsible Minister makes the case and signs off. Of course, generally this is in consultation with colleagues. It’s worth noting that Reti has been declining comments when approached by NZ media and it looks to me that he’s been deliberately sidelined from above.

      • aj 5.1.2
        19 August 2024 at 11:26 am

        Or was instructed to appoint Levy . . . .

  6. AB 6
    19 August 2024 at 10:15 am

    The repeated appointment of Levy is a sign of the Right's instinctive affinity for the "Great Man Theory" (GMT) of history, where only men (usually men) with certain innate qualities can achieve epoch-changing things. The affinity is because the GMT naturalises the Right's love of hierarchy, order and inequality.

    • Muttonbird 6.1
      19 August 2024 at 7:05 pm

      Yep, he's only ever been employed by politicians from the National Party, apart from that one time when accounting consultants convinced Andrew Little to send him in to intimidate the Canterbury District Health Board.

  7. tsmithfield 7
    19 August 2024 at 12:02 pm

    I don't blame him asking for prayer when it is obvious he is dealing with bureuacrats actively working against him.

    RNZ has seen a copy of the presentation about "potential cost savings in hospital and specialist services" to senior leadership on Tuesday, which suggested a total reduction of 4492 staff, including 470 doctors, 1491 nurses, 338 allied staff and more than 2000 managers and admin workers.

    And:

    "For the avoidance of doubt, what was presented is in direct conflict with our thinking and should be dismissed," he wrote.

    The Commissioner and Deputy Commissioners Ken Whelan and Roger Jarrold were "absolutely committed to a strong clinical frontline to drive better health outcomes for New Zealanders".

    "The clinical frontline will not be cut or reduced, and our plans are to strengthen it.

    • Mountain Tui 7.1
      19 August 2024 at 2:19 pm

      Another myth this government is trying to draw up, I see.

      As Levy himself admitted:

      It was apparently a presentation by a manager who was trying to make a comparison of the amount of savings required by comparing it to FTE. In my view it was a misguided way of trying to make an analogy and is unacceptable.

      i.e. He asked the management team to find that much in budget savings, and they modelled different ways – the fact that 4492 FTE – including hundreds and thousands of doctors and nurses – is telling as to how deeply they want to cut Health NZ

      • tsmithfield 7.1.1
        19 August 2024 at 2:37 pm

        I have absolutely no issue with looking for ways to reduce bureaucracy in the health system.

        There will always be a balance between the degree to which administration supports the health delivery, and the degree to which it bogs it down. Whatever you think about the amount of money that should be devoted to health, don’t you think that as much of that as possible should be delivered directly to the front line?

        Those who disagree with that objective surely must either think that the admistrative side of health is as efficient as it can possibly be right now, or that the health system is there to provide jobs, regardless of whether they add anything at all the system as well as deliver health.

        • Nic the NZer 7.1.1.1
          19 August 2024 at 3:36 pm

          The only way to hit the health budget target put in place by Willis will be to cut front line staff, lots and lots of front line staff.

        • Shanreagh 7.1.1.2
          19 August 2024 at 4:06 pm

          I tend to agree but then when I was working in health back in the day we had some figures that seemed to have come from a reputable place that showed that every clinician in a hospital setting needed around 7 people as support for them.

          These were not people like interns or nurses on the clinical side but mainly the admin component dealing with waiting lists, appointments, stores, admin things like reports to Govt/OIAs etc etc. If these supports are available then it makes the life of a clinician easier and the place operates more efficiently.

          It is when 'idiots' look at the admin component and say 'you're overstaffed' that annoys me. As if one clincian and a helper can operate the whole of a discipline in a hospital setting.

          I am sure there are similar figures avaiable for nurses and even for a CEO.

          So I can see that there might be savings from procurement efficiencies but wouldn't these have been looked at before now bearing in mind that health and education have not had an easy road $$$$$-wise for many years no matter what stripe of Govt is in power? There have been efficiencies made that I know of in greater collaboration between hospitals in different regions but this was forced on hospitals as part of the short sharp shock of RHAs/CHEs/DHBs.

          Before that the stories were legion about every hospital wanting to stock up with every modern piece of kit. We even had North Shore Hospital empty for several years as no provison had been made for staffing or furnishing.

          When I was working there every hospital wanted a linear accelerator but few hospitals wanted a bar of population-based funding…you know providing excellence in Maori Health issues or health issues for the elderly based on their actual demographics to meet the demands in their region was not see 'sexy' as we used to say.

          If Lester Levy can look to see if hospitals are focusing on their populations, and they are much much better than they were, then this will be relevant. I suspect the picture is going to be very much the same as it was all those years ago and that is that not enough money overall to go into every mode of health from GPs to clinical training to kit to adequate numbers of clincians. Hospitals are costly to run and have been starved of any reasonable increases for many, many years.

          While Luxon has posited that infrastructure could be worked on jointly and taken out of politics. We all used to hope (back in the day) that by some miracle Health could be taken out of politics. Many of us also thought Education as well as we struck this need in the spread of primary care initiatives out into the community and then there was adequate housing…..education and housing and poverty have inextricable links to health. But where do you stop, where can we stop?

          Make no mistake finding fat in the health sector that has been on a fat free diet for nigh on thirty-forty years is a tremendous ask. Recogniton of this is partly the reason I think for Lester Levy’s prayer comment.

          • Shanreagh 7.1.1.2.1
            19 August 2024 at 7:54 pm

            Should clarify that there are few specialists/surgeons that work full time in the public health system. That is why their employment is expressed in FTEs (full time equivalents). This means that the admin supporters component should be read as per 7 per FTE clinician.

            To the list of those supporting a clinician should be added financial, and clinical/medical coders. Clinical coders are important as they translate reports of treatment by clinicians etc into alphanumeric codes that are then translated/bulked up into 'purchasing' or financial allocations.

            This may be a poor example…..So a gallstone op may have codes for whether the gall bladder was removed at the same time or whether the stones only were. Then these codes are analysed and perhaps we might find that patients in a certain health catchment are routinely coming forward for full scale gall bladder removal instead of being able to attend a bus which is a mobile lithotripsy clinic or because of poor primary care outreach in a rural area.

            Lithotripsy

            Lithotripsy is a procedure involving the physical destruction of hardened masses like kidney stones, bezoars or gallstones, which may be done non-invasively. The term is derived from the Greek words meaning "breaking stones".Wiki

        • PsyclingLeft.Always 7.1.1.3
          19 August 2024 at 4:18 pm

          Those who disagree with that objective surely must either think that

          Oh really ? Seems pretty loaded there tsmithfield. Personally I will go with the very large number of Doctors and Nurses (Frontline staff and linked many times…) who also think that Dr Levy….is on a Luxon/Reti manufactured crisis Health System crusade.

          • tsmithfield 7.1.1.3.1
            19 August 2024 at 4:50 pm

            If National wants to both fit the health system within the budget, and maintain frontline services, then they may need to tip more money in if that is not possible within the existing budget.

            However, we should at least look at whether we can make things more efficient on the administrative side so that more money can be funneled to the front line. I don't really see an issue with that.

            • Shanreagh 7.1.1.3.1.1
              19 August 2024 at 5:03 pm

              If National wants to both fit the health system within the budget, and maintain frontline services, then they may need to tip more money in if that is not possible within the existing budget.

              As I said also what health needs and has not had is a huge cash input across the board. I think, from memory, the original figures that the original health restructuring were based on were faulty so health has been chasing for years to be adequately funded.

              (Several Govt departments that I was associated with at the time of the reforms in 1980s/90s had the budgets for the new entities slashed by The Treasury before the entities were set up ie they did not use the figures that functions had cost prior to the split-up. Or perhaps the figures for the new entites were unduly optimistic or perhaps it was part and parcel of being involved in the ghastly NZ neo-lib experiment. DoC was one department that has struggled ever since solely because its start-up baseline figure bore no resemblance to reality)

          • Shanreagh 7.1.1.3.2
            19 August 2024 at 5:46 pm

            Quite apart from Lester Levy I do agree that this is a Govt manufactured crisis about the health system.

            There has been so much written and tried that you could just pick up a myriad of reports that would advise exactly what the health system needs and do it, mainly more $$$$. Then if the Nacts were genuine then get cross party consensus on what can be done to take Health away from being a political football.

            It is a complete waste of time & precious dollars for every agency in the health sector to be waiting to find out what Dr Levy needs information-wise, supplying it, answering any questions, responding to any report/s.

            Much of what is happening is because we cannot or will not pay staff enough. Fix that and measure out a good dollop of 'taiho' (hold on! no hurry!) and see what happens. Just as water doesn't flow uphill this may not happen under this type of Govt especially one with a partner, ACT, that believes in microscopic Govt.

        • Mountain Tui 7.1.1.4
          19 August 2024 at 5:23 pm

          False posit again.

          No-one is arguing that there shouldn't be efficiency.

      • PsyclingLeft.Always 7.1.2
        19 August 2024 at 4:23 pm

        Yea, you only have to read Levy and Reti deny..

        "For the avoidance of doubt, what was presented is in direct conflict with our thinking and should be dismissed," he wrote.

        Health Minister Shane Reti said he had received assurances directly from the Commissioner that this proposal did not "in any way" represent his planning for Health NZ's future.

        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/525125/internal-presentation-suggesting-loss-of-4492-health-staff-should-be-dismissed-commissioner

        Methinks the creeps doth protest..too much. (And of course all the previous links ! )

  8. thinker 8
    19 August 2024 at 12:14 pm

    The less-risky prayer option is to pray for a decent health system as opposed to praying for Lester Levy.

    A comment that "I'm not religious, but if you are then pray for me" smacks of someone who is desperate for lack of options that are, in terms of that person's world-view, feasible, hence opening up potential options that are outside that person's world-view.

    Instead, praying for a decent health system brings with it the potential for a Miracle, which I get the impression from the above may well be the least-risk Plan A strategy…

  9. Psycho Milt 9
    19 August 2024 at 8:57 pm

    "We have to consider everything," says Professor Levy. He leaves out "Except the possibility that perhaps the system is simply not being funded at a level sufficient to achieve what the govt is demanding of it. I'm not allowed to consider that one."

  10. aj 10
    20 August 2024 at 5:18 pm

    Dr Levy could be asked the same questions as the experts here when they respond about who has the world's best health-care system. And it would be very revealing about his motivation.

    8 minutes long and USA – centric but interesting questions and answers.

    What experts say about who has the world's best health-care system

    ….A good health care system has, to me, several attributes….

    ….How does it affect our health as a country? – How long is it that people are living? – What is the infant mortality rate? – What is the rate of certain types of diseases – and how well are they doing in prevention?….

    ….A bad health care system could have overspending on care that's of really questionable health benefit at the same time that it has under-spending on health care that's of vital importance to people…..

    ….So, when people say, "Do we spend too much on health care? We spend way too much on some things, and way too little on others, so a good system would fix both problems….

    ….And the third dimension for a health care system is, how well does it reflect our values as a society? And by values, I mean — What are the rich willing to do for the poor? What are the healthy willing to do for the sick?….

    ….The answer to that doesn't come from economics. It's an answer that we all have within us….

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