New Digital Services structure in place from July

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth 

The restructured Digital Services function at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is expected to be in place from July and will be guided by six new design principles.

The new service will see Data and Digital become Digital Services and move from having 2405 positions as of November 2024, to 1450 from July.

The decision document for the service says the function will ‘operate to nationally agreed service levels’ and any variations, such as requests for reinstated or enhanced service levels, will have to be funded by the customer requesting the change.

‘Consolidate services’, with a focus on maintaining critical systems to support frontline care, is another of the six new design principles that will guide Digital Services, the decision document says.

These sit alongside; operate as a national service; balance regional devolution and district delivery; introduce a ‘business funded’ model; and accelerate the move towards ‘self-service’ for digital services where appropriate.

A service impact assessment acknowledges that there is still risk with the changed structure, especially where it already existed, and for non-critical services. 

The key potential impacts of change include extreme variation, scattered single points of failure and unclear rules for cascading support.

Also, having a complex, fragmented application environment, low baseline resilience and the need for high regular maintenance.

The document outlines seven newly named directorates within Digital Services; digital health service and design; clinical informatics; cybersecurity; digital delivery; digital operations; digital applications and products; and business services.

There will also be four new regional digital directors reporting to the regional deputy chief executives.

The introduction from acting chief information technology officer Darren Douglass says the organisation will complete an EOI process to fill new positions in the Digital Services structure and roles with no impact or only minor impacts will transition to the new structure once their respective line managers are in their role. 

“We expect to fully transition to the new structure from 1 July 2025,” he says.

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