A lengthy IT outage affecting hospitals across Auckland and Northland has been blamed by the Public Service Association (PSA) on government cuts to Health NZ’s digital services team, which it says left clinicians unable to access patient information or communicate electronically for more than 12 hours.
The union said staff were forced to revert to pen-and-paper systems, warning the disruption exposed the risks of underfunding digital health infrastructure, particularly coming weeks after the Manage My Health data breach.
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons accused the government of losing critical digital expertise and called for an urgent funding review, while Health NZ and the Ministry of Health have been approached for comment.
“The government has to take the blame for this – these failures are a direct result of its short-sighted decision to underfund and cut roles at Health NZ’s digital services team,” Fitzsimons said.
“The government oversaw the loss of the very experts who maintain and upgrade these critical systems, and now we’re seeing the predictable consequences – hospitals forced onto whiteboards and paper forms while trying to deliver modern healthcare.”
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