More than 1300 digital roles ‘significantly impacted’ by HNZ change proposal

NEWS - eHealthNews editor Rebecca McBeth

Hundreds of digital services staff will have to reapply for new roles as part of the proposed restructure at Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora.

The organisation is proposing to slash 1120 roles from ‘digital services’ which equates to a 47 percent reduction from the current 2405.

The future FTE is 1285 with 822 of these ‘new roles’ that staff can then apply for.

Four regional digital directors would also be appointed and report into the deputy chief executives as part of the new organisational structure.

The ‘digital services’ change document, obtained by eHealthNews, says 1326 current roles are ‘significantly impacted’ by the proposed change, 278 are ‘impacted’, 170 have ‘no impact’ and 225 are ‘transferring out’. The current FTE includes 467 vacancies.

Health NZ proposes to disestablish many more roles than it needs to reduce in order to allow kaimahi a “fair chance” to reapply for newly created roles while reducing team numbers by a proportion overall, it says.

Staff spoken to by eHealthNews say people are feeling shocked and devastated by the news and fear the impact the cuts will have on clinicians, patients and the wider health system.

“When you remove vacancies from the numbers, the total proposed job cuts of those currently employed into roles is 37 percent: that is 37 percent of us who turned up to work today to be told we have no place in the proposed structure. We were also told to expect to do more with less,” says one staff member, who asked not to be named.

The consultation document says the new organisational structure prioritises operational efficiency and financial sustainability and refocuses on “performing, rather than transforming”.

Data and digital’s budget for the 2024/25 financial year will be reduced to $658 million from the previous year’s $816 million, and it needs annual savings of $99 million. 

Former chief data and digital Leigh Donoghue says he feels for the people impacted, “consumers, clinicians and committed IT staff who need and deserve better data and digital systems.

“The focus here is on cutting IT spend and support staff rather than investing to improve healthcare productivity and performance. Hopefully this focus re-emerges in time lest we fall further behind.”

At the core of the proposed new structure are four regional directors who will manage digital services in their respective areas and report to the deputy chief executives with a dotted line to the chief information technology officer. 

They would have virtual regional delivery teams including clinical informatics directors; network and comms leads; service desk team lead; applications technical support team leads; service delivery managers and others.

Some capabilities would remain at a national level including; cybersecurity, investment strategy and planning, asset management, digital identity and national products, platforms and channels.

“Strategically, there is a need to move to fewer, better digital platforms—ideally national platforms—which can be more easily and cost-effectively maintained, protected, and extended,” the document says.

Alongside the four regional directors, the new structure includes seven directors of specialised teams, including digital operations, digital products and channels, cybersecurity and a strategy and partnerships team.

Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says, “health minister Shane Reti would have seen the same advice as I did, that IT services at Te Whatu Ora were on the brink, and this level of cuts will put continuity of services and New Zealanders’ health information at risk".

Consultation closes on December 18 with a decision document due to be released in late January.

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