IT breach risk ‘very real’ amid job cuts at Te Whatu Ora: union

Te Whatu Ora is being taken to the Employment Relations Authority amid its plan to remove a number of positions across the organisation, including many data and digital jobs. 

New Zealand’s largest trade union Public Service Association (PSA) lodged this legal action with the ERA. “Health NZ failed to provide workers with adequate reasons for the cuts and to properly listen to them in the rush to deliver the savings the Government demanded,” the union claimed. “This litigation is aimed at stopping these rushed and damaging cuts.”

PSA said Te Whatu Ora may be violating obligations under collective deals, the Employment Relations Act, and the Te Mauri o Rongo The Health Charter if it proceeds with dismissing around 1,000 positions across Data and Digital Directorate, the National Public Health Service and the Pacific Health Directorate. 

In response, Te Whatu Ora acting CITO Darren Douglass said it already closed the consultation process for its proposed changes to the Digital Services team and will proceed with making final decisions. “All decision documents will be shared with affected staff first. We will update staff in the coming weeks on the timeline for next steps.”

THE LARGER CONTEXT

The filing of the ERA complaint follows its request to the Privacy Commissioner a week prior to urgently investigate the organisation’s job cuts, which it claims is a “huge gamble with patient privacy and safety.”

“We take the privacy of patient information extremely seriously and that will always be a critical consideration for us,” Douglass assured.

Te Whatu Ora has been cost-cutting since last year to stabilise its finances. It includes diverting funds from IT projects, such as Hira, to frontline services and planning to lay off jobs. 

The organisation has also eased on IT implementations as costs to maintain over 4,000 legacy applications and systems mounted. “The Government is on notice that Health NZ’s IT systems are already under huge pressure and that the directorate is understaffed. The risk of cyber security breaches is very real as the Waikato Hospital ransomware attack in 2021 showed,” PSA emphasised. 

In its investigation request to the Privacy Commissioner, the union said “a reduction in IT support will result in legacy issues remaining unaddressed and deteriorating. The resulting application failures and unplanned outages will have serious clinical impact.”

“For example, reducing the number of systems engineers who manage critical infrastructure such as Exchange, Active Directory, File and Print, DNZ and DHCP from over 190 to just 44 nationwide will have a significant impact on critical systems.”

Backing the PSA’s legal actions, the Digital Health Association said the proposed IT job and budget cuts leave the health system in a vulnerable position that would further cause strain on frontline services.  

“Instead of investing in 21st-century technology to address our health system crisis, they defund it, asking teams to ‘do more with less’ and leaving us with an outdated delivery model that puts immense pressure on frontline staff and clinicians,” DHA chief executive Ryl Jensen said in a statement. 

Moreover, the PSA highlighted an existing resourcing gap at Te Whatu Ora that may suggest understaffing. “Before the current change proposal was released, the Data and Digital Directorate already had 467 vacancies which had not been filled.” 

Health Minister Simeon Brown, however, dismissed the claim as “fake news.” 

Meanwhile, Te Whatu Ora is now looking for its next chief following the resignation of Margie Apa four months before the end of her three-year term.