New Zealand waives vaccine pass, QR code requirements

From 4 April, the use of vaccine passes and QR codes will no longer be required in New Zealand.

In a statement on Wednesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that vaccine passes "will no longer be mandated" after COVID-19 cases came down from their peak. 

Yet, the government will still maintain systems in place and update the passes over time to include boosters. 

"Should there be a variant that demands it, or a change in circumstances, we may yet need them again," Ardern said.

The government will also stop requiring the use of QR codes as it sees no need to conduct wider contact tracing, except in high-risk environments, such as residential facilities for vulnerable people.

But Ardern told the public to still keep their NZ COVID Tracer app, which stores their QR codes, to stand ready when contact tracing will be mandated again once a new variant emerges. 

"Scanning has been a really important part of what we’ve achieved, so thank you everyone for playing your part. But for now, we can all stop hovering around the entrance to a supermarket or venue while we stumble around on our phones – a welcome change for us all," she said.

Nelson Marlborough DHB moves to cloud

The Nelson Marlborough District Health Board in New Zealand has recently moved to the AMS Pulse cloud. 

The DHB has switched from running its roster-to-pay on-site to adopting a cloud-based workforce management solution from AMS. 

Its move will help in managing their workers under different employment agreements amid an ongoing pandemic and the changes in Multi-Employer Collective Agreement (MECA) settlements and the remediation and rectification related to the Holidays Act. 

According to a media release, NMDHB stated three factors for its move to the cloud. "Firstly, there was removing the need to have [an] in-house expertise to manage an increasingly complex technical environment – including managing test environments in delivering the Holidays Act and the many MECA changes," said General Manager for People and Capability Trish Casey.

Second is security, especially given the recent cyber attacks on DHBs. "We were looking for a much stronger, inbuilt, discipline around data security and system access," she said. 

Finally, their workforce said they wanted to have remote access to their roster and pay systems. 

AMS has also set up a cloud data replication service using Microsoft Azure that accurately updates all relevant data, according to Ben Barlow, AMS head of workforce management. The service, he explained, ensures that the customised internal reporting and integrations built by NMDHB for on-premise can be sustained in the cloud.

Info manager among top earners in Australia's health industry, latest insights reveal

A new data portal by Australia-based employment marketplace SEEK has revealed that information managers are among positions in the healthcare and medical industry that have fast-growing average salaries.

Based on data from SEEK's Laws of Attraction portal, their average salary went up 20% year on year to A$113,880, the second-highest average salary among roles. 

Resident medical officers are earning the most with an average salary of A$128,812, which is 31% higher compared to last year. Other positions that have seen increasing salary hikes are dental officers, house officers, and registrars.

The Laws of Attraction portal also showed the top drivers attracting candidates in the healthcare and medical industry, which are work-life balance, salary and compensation, and career development.

"We work across Australia to fill a variety of roles in the healthcare and medical industry. Over the last two years, and especially right now, we have seen a huge spike in the volume of jobs available for candidates, making it a challenging market for hirers," Cornerstone Recruitment CEO Samantha Miklos commented on the latest insights from SEEK.