Health and community service providers across New Zealand are facing mounting pressure to maintain the quality of care while managing workforce shortages, rising costs and increasingly complex funding requirements.
Those pressures are forcing organisations to look closely at the systems and processes behind frontline care, particularly workforce planning, financial management and reporting.
A recent roundtable hosted by TechnologyOne brought together leaders from across the health and community services sector to discuss the challenges facing providers and the priorities likely to shape future service delivery.
The sector spans aged care, disability services, hospitals, health insurance and other community-based services. As demand grows and the needs of the people receiving care become more complex, providers are also dealing with greater expectations around transparency, accountability and organisational performance.
For operators, that creates a difficult balance. Resources need to remain focused on frontline services, but the organisations supporting those services also need stronger financial visibility, workforce information and planning capability.
Reducing unnecessary administration is part of that equation, particularly where better systems can give care teams and managers clearer information without adding to their workload.
New Zealand Health Group’s Group Financial Controller, Bevan Cho, said “Demand keeps growing, but workforce and funding pressures mean we need to think differently about how we operate. Our challenge is maintaining high-quality care and support while making the best use of our resources. Strengthening the systems and processes that support frontline teams is central to making this happen.”
“The challenge isn't simply delivering more services. It's ensuring we have the capacity, systems and information to meet increasingly complex community needs. Getting those foundations right ensures we can allocate our staff where they have the greatest impact," said Heritage Lifecare’s Finance Operations Manager, Chandra Yee.
The discussion also highlighted the similarities between organisations operating across different parts of the health and community services sector.
TechnologyOne’s New Zealand Country Manager, Ben Sheehan, said “Throughout the discussion, we heard a shared focus on sustainability, visibility and supporting frontline teams. Organisations provide different services, but many manage similar challenges around workforce planning, financial management, compliance and reporting. With the right technology, providers can direct more resources towards the people and communities they support.”
Looking ahead, providers will need to respond to growing demand while adapting to changing service expectations, workforce requirements and funding models.
For organisations already operating under tight financial and staffing constraints, the emphasis is increasingly on building the operational resilience needed to support care delivery without allowing administration and complexity to consume resources that are needed elsewhere.
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