Patient data at risk over ‘dangerous’ IT job cuts at Health NZ, union warns

Monday, 10 February 2025

The union wants the Privacy Commissioner to investigate planned cuts at Health NZ, as staff warn they’ll put patient lives at risk. Pictured: Wellington Regional Hospital’s ICU.

Patient data will be at greater risk of privacy breaches under Health New Zealand’s plans to cut almost half its roles in its IT workforce, says the union representing affected staff.

The Public Services Association (PSA) is urgently calling on the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to investigate proposed cuts to 1120 roles in the data and digital team, because of the “huge gamble with patient privacy and safety”.

Health New Zealand promotes “continuous improvement: fail early, fail often, succeed over time” in its proposal to cut staff from its data and digital team.

The proposal to affected staff, in a video posted publicly online in December, promotes having “one vanilla-flavoured brown bag common cheap solution per problem” and “continuous improvement: fail early, fail often, succeed over time”.

“While this approach might be acceptable in a low-stakes environment, it is completely unacceptable in an organisation that is responsible for the wellbeing of New Zealanders and the safeguarding of their health information,” PSA acting national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons wrote in a letter to the Privacy Commissioner.

The reduction in roles, many of which are vacant, is expected to save $100 million annually ‒ part of Health NZ Commissioner Lester Levy’s plans to find savings of close to $2 billion this year.

“You can’t cut half the data and digital workforce without serious consequences,” Fitzsimons told The Post.

“We trust the Government and health service with the most sensitive data about us. They have a duty to keep that safe.”

Fleur Fitzsimons, acting national secretary for the Public Service Association, says the Government has a responsibility to keep data safe.

The major cyber security breach at Waikato Hospital in 2021 showed just how vulnerable patient data was, Fitzsimons said.

In a survey run by the PSA, staff at Health NZ - Te Whatu Ora echoed the concerns.

Multiple respondents said the proposed cuts would create treatment delays and slow down clinicians, some of whom are already providing their own tech support.

“It will actually put patients' lives at risk, due to delayed emergency responses from IT specialists on site in departments like ED, ICU and operating theatres,” one member wrote.

“We've found doctors having to wait on hold in a queue for IT support while patients are waiting. Is this what Lester Levy wants?” another wrote.

Members said many IT systems were not updated as they were so out of date. “This can impact the level of data privacy we provide and with any security vulnerability it increases the risk of compromise,” one staffer said.

“Server patching will get a lot harder, making the systems and applications more vulnerable and prone to unplanned outages.”

Te Whatu Ora did not respond directly to written questions about the “fail early” comments or the request to the Privacy Commissioner, but provided a statement saying feedback on the proposal had closed.

“We take the privacy of patient information extremely seriously and that will always be a critical consideration for us,” acting chief IT officer Darren Douglass said.

“The team has been highly engaged in the consultation process. We will now take time to carefully consider all feedback before any final decisions are made,“ he said.

Decision documents would be shared with affected staff first, who would be updated in the coming weeks, Douglass said.

It is understood staff are expecting final decisions mid-March.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner confirmed it was reviewing the material, but had no further comment.

Health NZ axed its former head of data and digital, Leigh Donoghue, late last year, along with a chief data officer.

The proposal came after Budget 2024 slashed more than $300m from a digital upgrade to fix Te Whatu Ora’s fragmented information-sharing programme, according to RNZ.