Orion CEO requests review of immunisation solution procurement process

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Orion Health's chief executive has asked the Auditor General to review the Ministry of Health’s procurement processes in relation to the new National Immunisation Solution (NIS).

In a letter to the Auditor- General, founder of Orion Health Ian McCrae says he believes that Covid-19 was used to circumvent proper procurement processes and the reported $38 million cost of the new system is “scandalous”.

Orion Health provides the current National Immunisation Register (NIR), which is being replaced by the NIS. McCrae says this a system of national significance and “deserved a proper procurement process, with checks and balances”.

“Instead, the Ministry provided a late half-hearted request for information against a scope that the selected consultants and international vendors haven’t even come close to meeting,” he says.

The government announced in July last year that it was investing $23 million to develop a new National Immunisation Solution to support the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine. 

Former Health Minister Chris Hipkins said at the time that the current NIR, “simply could not cope with the scale and complexity of a mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign”.

That funding was on on top of $15 million already committed to extend the National Contact Tracing System (NCTS) to manage the delivery of a vaccine.

The NCTS is a re-purposing of the IT platform chosen to support the National Bowel Screening Programme, built by Deloitte on Salesforce technology.  

Shayne Hunter, deputy director-general of data and digital, Ministry of Health, says the Ministry has not heard from the Office of the Auditor-General so is not in a position to comment on specific points raised.

He says the MoH formally procured a platform in 2018 through a proper RFP to support bowel screening and other population health services.

In response to Covid-19, it has leveraged the platform (along with other technology platforms and components) to support contact tracing, management of the border, Covid-19 testing and reporting. Fifteen companies are involved in the development.

“The Ministry of Health is confident we followed appropriate procurement processes and principles, reflecting the situation we were facing and the need to act promptly,” he says.

Hunter says the Ministry had always intended to replace the existing NIR. The new Covid-19 Immunisation Register was stood up in under a month, is now being used across New Zealand and has been well-received by clinicians.

McCrae says that if Orion Health had been able to formally bid in a procurement process, the company would have given a cost of $50,000 to add Covid immunisations to the current system and one month to implement.

He goes on to say that Orion Health would have upgraded the configuration of the current system at its own cost and made this offer in 2017 directly to the Ministry.

“My request for a full audit review is about the principal of the situation, not a concern that we are missing out,” he says.

McCrae also claims the Ministry of Health “used false information in their business case to substantiate their rationale for flouting procurement processes”. He references an MoH document, issued under OIA, which says Orion had advised that it will not support the current NIR from 31 March 2022 onwards, which McCrae says is not true.

He says the new system, “remains a long way off doing some of the basic stuff that the current system does like updating GP records, linking to pharmacies and decision support.

“DHBs are now scrambling to plug the holes with their own short-term fixes. This is going to result in more problems, like what we saw in Canterbury with personal information potentially being disclosed due to a computer error.”

Hunter says the new system “is significantly more complex and has greater functionality than the old NIR, which was a register rather than a service that supports a full range of inventory, distribution, adverse reactions, and workforce. 

“The system is currently being extended to support online booking for Covid-19 vaccinations.  All of the development work on the platform has taken place with local New Zealand-based suppliers, as well as Ministry staff.”  

“There are significant benefits from having vaccinations sitting as part of a wider ecosystem of pandemic and disease responses, and we are building a national asset that can live beyond the Covid-19 response,” he says.