Health Minister says he rejected hiring controls officials called vital to the budget

Health Minister Simeon Brown says he never accepted a policy keeping tight hiring controls on frontline staff, despite a March briefing from Health New Zealand's then commissioner Professor Lester Levy and interim chief executive Dr Dale Bramley calling them crucial to the health budget. Brown says he wrote to Health NZ in November urging faster hiring. The gap between the briefing and that letter remains unexplained.