Christchurch Hospital has apologised for confusion over cuts to meals provided to parents and caregivers on its children's cancer ward.
RNZ has learned from whānau who said the Christchurch children's cancer ward was no longer serving the meals.
"This will directly affect the care of children as their parents [from Wellington and the whole of the South Island] have to leave them while they are very sick to chase a meal," they said.
When RNZ queried this, Te Whatu Ora admitted this had been the case - but also that it had done a u-turn on the issue over the weekend.
"Last week, a message went out to reduce - but not completely stop - the offer of hot food to parents and caregivers," Te Whatu Ora interim group director of operations Jo Gibbs said in a statement late on Sunday.
This was an attempt to revert to the situation pre-Covid-19 when meals were not routinely offered, she said.
"During the pandemic, supplying hot food became standard (when people could not leave the ward to get food from the cafeteria or go to a communal kitchen to make food)."
However, last week's instructions had been withdrawn, Gibbs said.
"This has unfortunately caused some confusion, for which we apologise.
"Our nursing teams in the children's wards have been contacted this weekend to ensure that hot food should continue to be made available for all parents and caregivers as they need it."
Whānau had access to hot drinks and toast, and free hot food could be ordered.
It was incredibly difficult to have an unwell child in hospital, especially when it was unplanned and people were away from home, Gibbs said.
Later on Sunday, a Te Whatu Ora spokesperson said: "There's no 'u-turn'.
"A message was sent out that was interpreted differently by staff and possibly wasn't as clear as it could have been. This weekend, it's been clarified to our ward teams that if parents/caregivers need or want hot meals, they are still available."
Last week, RNZ reported that Te Whatu Ora told the country's 20 health districts they must save $105m by the start of July because they had blown their operating budgets, and imposed new constraints on staffing to drive this.
