Carnage continues in Aotearoa’s digital health sector

2 minute read


The conservative government is going to cut a third of digital and data jobs in the country’s health agency.


Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand) is continuing to cut funding to its digital health resources, Healthcare IT News reports.

As reported by HSD last month, Leigh Donoghue TWO’s chief of data and digital was shown the door by CEO Margie Apa after just over a year in the job.

Add to that Ms Apa’s decision to implement a $100 million program of savings across the digital and data divisions of TWO, on top of the $380 million that was taken out of the data and digital budget this year.

The entire TWO board was replaced with a commissioner by health minister Shane Reti back in July.

Along the way, the HIRA project – designed to enable access to Aotearoa’s (New Zealand’s) My Health Record – has been suspended after completing its first phase. Some of that funding has been diverted to upgrading payroll systems.

On top of all that, funding for some free telehealth services has also been cut.

And now, according to HITN, TWO is about to make a third of its data and digital staff redundant, approximately 653 FTE roles excluding vacancies, from Digital Services, accounting for 33.7% of their current number.

Also going are 49 jobs at Pacific Health, 55 at the National Public Health Service and around 15 positions at Hauora Māori Services.

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“Te Whatu Ora has made some good progress towards living within our means, but we are still spending more than we have in our budget,” Ms Apa was quoted by HITN as saying.

“We took immediate steps to stabilise our finances, including working to get the best value for the products we purchase, and pausing or adjusting projects that may not provide immediate benefits.”

The Public Service Association, Aotearoa’s largest trade union, has condemned the move as “going back to the past”.

“The promise of the health reforms, including a modern fit-for-purpose IT system that delivers accurate data on patients to clinicians no matter where in the country, is being scuttled by these short-sighted cuts,” Ashok Shankar, PSA’s national health sector lead, was quoted as saying.

For context, Aotearoa changed its federal government just over 12 months ago from the centre-left Labour Party, led by Chris Hipkins, to the centre-right National Party, led by Christopher Luxton.

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