Rural hospitals at greatest risk from Digital Services job losses - report

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The loss of digital services jobs at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora increases risks to patient care and willl hit rural hospitals hardest, an internal report reveals.

The organisation is actively recruiting into 200 vacancies in its digital services team and has contracted Datacom to support its IT help desk through to May 2026.

More than 600 roles were already vacant and not being filled at the organisation when it confirmed it would reduce the number of data and digital roles from around 2000 to 1460 in April last year.

At the time, the total number of employees in the department was 1412.

The report End user impact of digital change – consequences was prepared in April 2025 after being commissioned by Health NZ's Clinical Quality and Safety Committee (CQASC). It was obtained under OIA by the Public Service Assocation (PSA).

It says that ‘End User Impact of Digital Change assessments’ warned that smaller regional hospitals including Gisborne, New Plymouth, Whanganui, Masterton, Nelson, Greymouth and Rotorua were already under-resourced and geographically vulnerable before the cuts. 

In these areas, “the impact would be felt more keenly owing to the multiple roles conducted by some staff. A combination of single points of failure and inadequate wrap-around support," the report says.

The CQASC found the proposed cuts would increase "overall clinical and operational risks which will materially impact patient care and operational resilience".

Also that reducing digital delivery capability "may negatively impact Health NZ's ability to implement productivity and cost saving initiatives" needed to meet health targets.

It warns of longer wait times for clinicians seeking IT support, saying "delays in responding to issues and requests may lead to impacts on clinical care time or the ability to provide critical information."

Public Service Association National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons says the report was "a crystal-clear warning that cutting the jobs of IT experts will increase risks to patients - and that was ignored by Health NZ in the headlong rush to make cuts ordered by the Government".

Health NZ's acting chief information technology officer Darren Douglass says the committee’s report identified that any reduction of that scale would carry risks if not actively managed.

"That is why targeted mitigations were built into the final proposal, including prioritising critical clinical systems, retaining additional operational support roles, strengthening regional digital leadership, and adding funded transition roles to support frontline services," he says.

Stuff reported in December that the organisation had contracted Datacom to help run its IT service desk until the end of January 2026. This contract has been extended through till 4 May 2026.

The report also reveals significant gaps in Business Continuity Plans nationwide, which ensure continuation of critical services during major system incidents or outages.

The PSA highlights recent IT outages as evidence of the risks, including an incident in January when clinicians across hospitals in Auckland and Northland were forced to use paper-based systems and whiteboards overnight.

Douglass says that as a large organisation with a significant number of different systems running in different parts of the country, Health NZ experiences technical issues from time to time. 

“Fortunately, the majority of incidents are resolved quickly.  We also have well-established contingencies in place to manage issues when they arise, to ensure patients continue to get the care they need,” he says.

The union is calling for the Government to immediately review funding for health digital services and IT infrastructure and commit to properly resourcing IT system upgrades and maintenance.

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