The Otago Daily Times has been informed the national health body is considering disestablishing the quality improvement department in a bid to cut costs.
A Dunedin Hospital staff member, who declined to be named, said this was hugely worrying for the health sector.
"This government is going to cost lives. Quality improvement in any industry, let alone health, is highly valuable to ensure processes are safe and effective, and complaints are followed up on with corrective actions implemented.
"This will impact frontline services, as quality improvement is all about frontline services."
Quality improvement in healthcare involves systematic efforts to enhance the delivery of healthcare services, improve patient outcomes and optimise overall quality of care.
Another staff member, who also declined to be named, said the department had been understaffed for some time, and had its role reduced by 75% over the past four years.
"This latest restructure proposal is effectively deleting our roles entirely and all the FTE/funding budget disappears, too.
"When asked who would be working with the clinical teams and the people on the ground in our health services to do improvement work and support improvement change and implementation, the authors of the proposal replied that the health and safety services would have to work that out."
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora director of improvement and innovation Penny Andrew said the organisation was asking for feedback from staff and unions on the proposals, which would be carefully considered before final decisions were made.
"While changes are proposed to the structure of the planning, funding and outcomes team, we remain committed to quality improvement to support the delivery of healthcare New Zealanders need and deserve," she said.
She declined to say how many staff were affected by the restructure and who was performing their roles in the interim.
