The New Zealand Government has emphasized frontline services in its latest health budget.
It has earmarked NZ$16.7 billion ($10.3 billion) over three years to “address cost pressures” in providing healthcare services. It will be “[provide] certainty around funding for the health system so our work to improve frontline services can continue.”
Meanwhile, more than NZ$330 million ($203 million) earmarked for digital health initiatives over the past four years up to 2027-2028 has been returned to the budget. Now in the form of savings. This includes NZ$187 million ($115 million) for the Digital and Data Platforms and Innovation initiative and NZ$144 million ($89 million) for the “Digital and Data Capabilities and Infrastructure – Enabling Health Systems Transformation”. Both initiatives aim to provide the data and digital infrastructure and capacity needed to implement health system reform.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
The Digital Health Association, New Zealand’s peak body for digital health, has raised concerns about an apparent reduction in funding for data and digital initiatives in medicine. international.
“The government has had to make some difficult choices. We all know the state of the economy and the government’s need for savings to invest in staff, infrastructure and frontline services And in this case, it appears that some of what Ryl Jensen, the group’s CEO, explained in a statement, is that the re-prioritized funding could come from existing programs already spent. below provisions from previous budget allocations.
Based on the initiatives’ Budget Brief, funding will be repaid “pending the preparation of investment-ready business cases for future investment.”
Health Minister Shane Reti hinted at the release of a 10-year plan that would guide New Zealand’s digital investment before the end of the year. News reports note.
THE LARGER CONTEXT
Over the past three years, the New Zealand government has invested up to NZ$1 billion ($616 million) in the health system’s digital and data infrastructure and capacity. Half of this amount was used to build Hira, the country’s new health information platform, the first phase of implementation of which will end this June.
In a briefing with Minister Reti late last year, Te Whatu Ora said they had a plan cutting back on building new IT systems and moving to “fewer platforms, more robustness”. It noted that the health system has a “patchwork” of more than 4,000 clinical and business system applications, many of which are at or near the end of their lifespan. These are also incurring technical debt.
The organization also intends to focus on migrating existing IT systems to the cloud, which it claims is a more cost-effective solution to increase service availability. There are also plans to expand ICT capabilities for new care models and invest in home care technology.
