Health NZ told minister hiring controls needed through 2025/26

OIA documents show Health Commissioner Lester Levy and interim chief executive Dr Dale Bramley told Health Minister Simeon Brown in March that strict recruitment controls — requiring regional managers to sign off frontline hiring — were crucial to meeting Health NZ's budget. They expected the controls to last through 2025/26. The PSA union, which obtained the documents, called their safety claims "pure fantasy."