Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed Justice Minister Kiri Allan is on leave again after facing allegations about mistreating staff in her office, claims she has denied.
Allan spent a week on mental health leave recently, in relation to her personal life. When she returned to work, she faced claims from a senior public servant that she had screamed and yelled at them.
Hipkins confirmed he had asked her to take some time off, and the pair would catch up when he gets back from a trip to Europe next week where he will attend a Nato meeting.
“Kiri has had a rough couple of weeks and I think it would be good for her to take some time off,” he said Monday at a post-Cabinet briefing where journalists continued to ask about the matter.
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“She’s indicated that she would like to take some time off. It’s school holidays, [and] a lot of people will take a bit of a break during this time,” he said.
ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff
Minister Kiritapu Allan is on leave and will speak with the PM when he’s back from Europe in a fortnight.
Hipkins was in China for a week doing a series of high level political meetings including with President Xi Jinping as well as business meetings with New Zealand exporters.
Health boosts
The Government on Monday morning announced a pay equity offer for nurses employed by Te Whatu Ora, adding $1.5 billion to an interim pay equity settlement.
Nathan McKinnon/Stuff
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins visits Shanghai.
Verall also revealed new measures to make it easier for people to get cataract surgery, introducing a nationally consistent threshold for surgery, and a consistent process for future waitlists.
The plan will mean about 2500 more surgeries will be delivered, she said. There were “wildly different” thresholds under the district health board system, she added. Now, a patient will need to get a score of 46 in order to qualify for surgery.
“Standardising access thresholds, including for cataract surgery, was identified as a priority by the Planned Care Taskforce in its Reset and Restore Plan last year. For decades the former DHBs used a point system that had wildly differing thresholds for access to cataract surgery – largely varying from 46 to 61 points,” she said.
“A score of 46 means patients with mildly reduced vision as a result of cataracts will have much earlier access to surgery, improving their quality of life considerably.”
Verall on Sunday signalled the Government would release its plan to tackle workforce shortages.
“We’ll be able to release a piece of work we’ve done around the workforce and gaps later in the week,” she said.
