Privacy Commissioner’s findings on Manage My Health breach a wake-up call to resource health IT

SECTOR UPDATE - PSA

The Privacy Commissioner’s finding that Health NZ and Manage My Health had deficient security safeguards confirms what the PSA warned about in January: the health sector’s IT systems are under-resourced and vulnerable.

"This finding should be a wake-up call. Nearly 100,000 New Zealanders, many of them in Northland, had their most sensitive personal information stolen because security was not up to scratch," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pukenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

"Tomorrow’s Budget will make scandals like this a feature of public services in New Zealand as the Government moves to dismiss thousands of public servants. We know services are already being damaged, members tell us of the mounting toll cuts have inflicted."

"In January, the PSA called on the Privacy Commissioner to investigate the impact of cuts to Health NZ’s digital workforce. He declined. Since then, we have seen the Waikato payroll failure affecting 4,000 health workers, and OIA documents showing Health NZ’s own internal reports warned that cutting IT staff would increase risks to patient care and hospital resilience.

"The pattern is clear. Health NZ’s digital workforce has been cut by nearly 1,000 roles. The systems these workers maintained and protected are ageing and vulnerable. IT problems are taking longer to resolve. The people who understood those old systems and their weaknesses are gone.

"The Government needs to stop treating health IT as a cost to be cut and start treating it as the critical infrastructure it is. Properly resourcing digital services in the health system is not optional - it is essential to protecting patient safety and privacy.

"New Zealanders whose personal health information was stolen deserve better than this.

"We hope tomorrow’s Budget marks a turning point in health funding, and not more of the same - patient care must be a priority," said Fitzsimons.

Source: PSA media release

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