Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) has asked hospitals throughout the country to save more than $105 million by July, RNZ reported yesterday.
The Southern health district had been ordered to save $9m.
ASMS southern senior industrial officer Kris Smith said she did not know how the figure ordered for Southern would be divided, but said they were "very, very big savings" to be achieved within the set timeframe.
"Every service will be impacted."
She understood vacancies would not be filled without approval, even for budgeted positions, overtime pay would be discouraged, and gaps created by people on leave would not be covered.
A number of specialist services were being "slammed" yet hiring locums and asking staff to do additional duties would not be possible without approval.
Every area of clinical work would be under pressure, not only for doctors but other health staff such as nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and psychologists.
ASMS executive director Sarah Dalton said the union was notified recently cuts would be required in order for HNZ to solve problems meeting its end-of-year financial returns.
However, it was not discussed with the union in any meaningful way, and had not gone into any detail on the extent of the savings.
"To me it just fits into this larger picture of an under-resourced health system."
The request prioritised balancing books ahead of acute demand and patient need, and was frustrating because it came in the context of ongoing and significant staff shortages.
A Southern example was the lack of senior radiation oncologists that resulted in training for registrars shifting from Dunedin to Christchurch.
She questioned how realistic the target was.
"It doesn’t look doable to me at all, and I’d also question what are the ethics of that project, given what we know about health demand currently.
HNZ chief executive Margie Apa confirmed the $9m fourth-quarter target for Southern to the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
The figure represented 1.2% of the annual budget, she said.
In the past three months, several regions had gone over budget in hospital expenditure for the current financial year, she said.
"We’re reducing the overspend, not making cuts.
"It’s important to consider the targets for this quarter against the total annual budgets of our hospitals.
"Managing clinical risk and ensuring patient safety remain our top priority, and resources are not being taken away from delivering frontline services.
"The measures we are taking are designed to help tighten management controls over budgets so we live within our means.
"We expect local managers to use their judgement to make decisions in their own settings when it comes to how they manage this."
Health Minister Shane Reti told RNZ the decisions were made by HNZ, not the government.
"I have been assured that managing clinical risk and sustaining services is always Health NZ’s top priority. None of these cost-saving measures will impact the level of care patients receive."
