Patients Will Die If Govt Proceeds With Plans To Halve Health IT Staff

Documents lay bare Govt putting dollars ahead of patient safety

The Government is playing fast and loose with the lives of New Zealanders by running down the vital IT systems that underpin critical care services in hospitals.

A risk planning document obtained by 1 News show the Government ignoring the risks to patient safety by pressing ahead with gutting Te Whatu Ora’s Data and Digital group to save $100 million a year.

"This is cold, hard evidence that the Government is prepared to risk the lives of patients to save money," said Ashok Shankar, National Health Sector Lead, Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

"The Government has told New Zealanders continually and loudly that its cuts will not impact the frontline of hospital services. These documents expose that for what it is - a bold-faced lie.

"The Government promised evidence-based decisions but is happy to ignore evidence when it doesn’t suit its cost cutting agenda."

The document was prepared to inform Te Whatu Ora leaders of the risks to critical care systems from its proposal to cut 47% of roles in the Data and Digital Group - a total of 1120 full time roles.

"It’s shameful that the Government has signed off on these cuts despite knowing the huge risks it’s taking. The price will be paid by New Zealanders who will not get the urgent critical treatment they need. Without a doubt some patients will die.

"It’s very concerning that the documents also show that the ability of hospitals to respond to a major emergency like a cyclone or earthquake is being put at risk by this decision. New Zealanders deserve better.

"The PSA understands that staff, including senior leaders, are alarmed at the risks that are being taking with the scale of these cuts, but have been ignored."

The Government was warned this year that IT systems were ‘fragile and fragmented’ and billions needed to be invested. 136 applications to fix these problems have now been stopped or deferred according to one of the documents.

"New Zealanders should expect hospital IT systems to work well, 24/7, so clinicians can provide the care patients need at the most critical moment in their lives.

"Given the urgent need to upgrade systems, integrate various old legacy DHB systems and maintain them for the time being, the Government should be investing more not less.

"But the Government has made a choice to fund tax cuts for landlords and big tobacco ahead of the lives of New Zealanders. This is reckless and irresponsible."

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Previous PSA statement

27 November Govt ignores health crisis, plans to axe 1500 public health roles

Background

The PSA has sighted the document obtained by 1 News, relating to the Northern Region where most New Zealanders live, titled Regional DCE impact assessment worksheet Sept 2024

The documents reflect feedback from Digital and Data staff on the risks of reducing the workforce. The register of risks rates 14 out of the 40 risks as "almost certain" to happen, with "severe" consequences.

Many of the impacts described relate to outages in critical core care systems (Category 0 and 1). Te Whatu Ora says the consequences of failure for a Category 1 service "could result in permanent injury or death for one or more health consumers".

The document states that unplanned outages or reduction in Data and Digital staff could have significant impacts for example as follows.

"Outages would last longer, severely impacting patient care, administrative functions, and operational efficiency."

"Imminent risk of catastrophic failure."

"Increased incidents and outages, overall reduced quality, safety, effectiveness and efficiency of care."

"Clinicians making clinical decisions without access to full information."

'Less effective and efficient clinical and operation teams during emergency response situations."

"This will lead to poorer health outcomes, increased staff turnover, and the loss of vital intellectual property, ultimately resulting in significant deterioration of category 0 and 1 clinical services and patient safety."

"Clinical staff burnout and patient care."

"Will lead to an overwhelmed workforce."

Faults could "snowball."

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