Data analytics change process stopped

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth 

Restructuring of the data and analytics team within Planning, Funding and Outcomes (PFO) has stopped following agreement with the country’s largest trade union, while litigation on the data and digital change process is continuing “at this stage”. 

Fiona McCarthy, interim chief human resources officer at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora says the organisation has reached agreement with the Public Service Association (PSA) on three change proposals.

The restructuring of the National Public Health Service and two directorates in the PFO unit - data and analytics, and community mental health funding and investment - will stop, and litigation by the PSA has been withdrawn.

McCarthy says this follows cost savings being met in those areas through operational efficiencies, voluntary redundancy and early exit processes.

“Health NZ continues to work through processes for other business units where change is underway to ensure all parts of our organisation live within budget and will remain engaged with our staff and unions as we do that,” she says.

eHealthNews reported in January 2025 that 81 analyst roles would be transferred from other directorates to the data and analytics function of the PFO business unit as part of a restructure proposal, with a net reduction of seven full-time equivalent (FTE) roles. 

PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons says the union is pleased the restructures have been stopped but says the health system has still lost critical expertise in these teams.

"The settlement means the proposed restructures are withdrawn and the current structures remain in place. Staff who are still employed and have agreed early exits can withdraw from that agreement if they choose to," she says.

"We have won this fight, but the damage has already been done to our health system. We will keep resisting and opposing this Government’s attacks on public health."

The PSA is still pursuing litigation in the Employment Relations Authority focused on a proposal to cut the number of roles in Health NZ’s data and digital directorate by 47 percent.

The legal action says the proposal “overlooked or ignored the considerable increase in clinical risk which would follow the introduction of their proposals”.

Fitzsimons says PSA litigation covering the data and digital and Pacific health directorates is still filed in the ERA at this stage, with a full hearing timed for 22 and 23 April in Wellington.

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