Hira funding reprioritised to support payroll systems

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

More than $25 million of funding intended for the Hira programme has been redirected to payroll stabilisation to “support the mitigation of immediate risks”, says Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora.

The organisation says that as part of Budget 2024, it was decided that unused contingency funds for Hira would to be redirected to payroll stabilisation and in April, Ministers approved the drawdown of $25.1m.

Health NZ has inherited a complex environment of around 20 payroll systems, some legacy or out of support, that were in use at the former DHBs and agencies. It is also working to remedy Holidays Act anomalies.

The organisation says key early actions to stabilise payroll systems have now been completed across the country, including resolving issues with the servers that run payroll and confirming and communicating business continuity plans.  

A July Cabinet paper ‘Improving the financial performance of Health New Zealand’ identifies fragmented administrative data systems as a key contributor to the organisation’s current fiscal situation. Commissioner Lester Levy has been appointed to implement a savings drive of $1.4 billion from its budget.

“Health NZ inherited a range of disparate data and management systems (such as payroll) from district health boards, many of which rely on legacy platforms that are no longer effectively supported. While the task of modernising this data infrastructure is very significant, there has been relatively limited progress in the past two years,” it says.

Health NZ says it has committed to developing an investment case for funding of the ‘Roster to Pay’ initiatives and the timing for this is being confirmed. 

The May Budget recalled $381 million earmarked for data and digital health initiatives over the next five years, including funding for the Hira programme.

In a speech to the DHA Parliamentary event in July, Health Minister Shane Reti addressed this “elephant in the room”, saying this redirection was not an indication of the Government’s lack of support for data and digital in health.

Instead, it was “a reflection of the fact that that the implementation pathway for Hira, for example, was unclear,” he told the audience.

“Now that Hira has completed Tranche One of development and mostly delivered the new functionality that they had intended, the project has been paused while I seek advice on next steps.”

Health New Zealand chief data and digital Leigh Donoghue says work on Hira is paused pending consideration as part of Health NZ’s 10-year infrastructure investment plan.  

This plan, due to be submitted in late November, will encompass both physical and digital infrastructure needs to enable future health services. 

Return to eHealthNews.nz home page