Health Critics Have Wrong Diagnosis

Health Critics Have Wrong Diagnosis

Critics of health reform savings need to look beyond just the dollars says leading player in health sector.

Auckland. 27 January 2010. – The ‘show me the money’ mentality of critics of planned reforms to the public health sector are missing the point, says the company whose payroll systems process the majority of health pay packets in New Zealand.

“According to our calculations, shared services around functions like payroll will deliver significant savings, but the real benefits of sharing services across DHBs are much broader,” says Noel Reid, Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Management Systems (AMS).

Mr Reid was responding to comments by Labour health spokeswoman Ruth Dyson that savings on sharing services across DHBs could be half of the estimated $700 million over five years forecast by the Government.

“For example a common, automated payroll system across DHBs will mean better human resource management systems can be put in place – front line clinical staff will be better looked after in terms of training, allowances, leave entitlements and so on.”

“Administrators will also have better information to decide how to best allocate staff to meet patient needs.”

Making it easier for frontline staff to do their job, rather than be tied up with administration, should be a main focus of any changes says Mr Reid.

“We’ve seen the huge benefit of greater automation with the private healthcare providers we service, and the potential within some of our DHB customers; achieving this across the sector would be an exciting development.”

AMS’ payroll solutions pay more DHB employees than any other provider, and AMS has established software processes to dramatically improve the productivity of payroll processing and reduce the output payroll error rates.
ends

© Scoop Media