Doctors dismayed at data and digital cuts

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Doctors and nurses organisations say funding cuts to Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora data and digital services and the loss of the chief data and digital role will negatively impact frontline clinicians and patient care.

Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS), says there is much work to do to in the data and digital space and the $100 million in cost savings the directorate has been asked to find puts this crucial work at risk.

"We do not believe that there is massive overspend going on in Health New Zealand. We believe there is massive underfunding of health, and we include data and digital in that," says Dalton.

Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora is looking to make savings of $1.4 billion with all ‘enabling functions’ having to make cuts as resourcing is prioritised to the frontline.

"Our view is that, yes, the data and digital team are not patient facing, but a lot of what they do provides critical support to the people who are and we feel like the carpet is completely being pulled out from beneath them," says Dalton.

She says New Zealand’s health system needs nationally coordinated, integrated digital systems as existing inefficiencies already directly impact patient care.

"If a patient is unconscious and you do not know what medications they are on, or if they have any allergies, or if they are being treated for other current conditions, that slows care down: it adds risk," Dalton explains.

IT challenges can also waste significant amounts of a health professional’s time with members reporting wait times of between five and 25 minutes just to log on to the systems they need to do their jobs.

"The only way, other than staffing, to improve productivity and efficiency, in our view, is having really strong connected data and digital systems," she says.

The recently announced disestablishment of the chief data and digital role, held by Leigh Donoghue, is a further blow to the mission of data and digital services.

Dalton says the ASMS had confidence in Donoghue as the national lead.

“We found him to be a really straight shooter, and so we are really concerned about what the disestablishment of this role means, and what the $100 million of cost savings that are being put onto that directorate will mean, because from our view, it means stuff that we urgently need to happen is simply not going to happen,” Dalton tells eHealthNews.

College of Nurses Aotearoa digital spokesperson Carey Campbell says recent announcements regarding leadership changes, coupled with the implication that “we must again do more with less—especially in the digital realm”, are a significant setback to safe and timely patient care.

“An emphasis on digital technologies is crucial for ensuring the ongoing safety of both patients and staff, and to improve efficiencies,” she says.

“Nurses, the backbone of our healthcare system, need digital solutions to reduce the burden of time-consuming manual tasks, support clinical documentation, and provide access to patient data at the point of care, regardless of geographical location or sector.”

Campbell says data and digital needs stable leadership and consistent investment to drive digital transformation, and nurses deserve better than constant change, budget cuts, and uncertainty in the sector.

Image: Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS)

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