New Zealand’s unused reserve fund for digital health projects has been redirected to address healthcare issues payroll system
Based on recently released government documents, earlier this year the government decided to use the contingency fund under the “Data and Digital Platform and Innovation” initiative to pay for “payroll stabilization.”
“[S]Payroll system stability has emerged as a risk requiring immediate investment. Investment may be needed to address payroll systems that will [their] will reach the end of its life cycle within the next 18 months,” the report said.
THE BIGGER CONTEXT
Te Whatu Ora is now focusing on addressing incorrect leave payments to current and former staff, dating back to 2010. The government agency, which was set up in 2022 to replace the 20 district health boards that previously made up the country’s health system, said it had inherited payroll systems that were “set up differently with different local arrangements and practices”. None of them were out of compliance with the Holidays Act.
“There are also areas of the country that are not only out of compliance but also need immediate repairs to ensure they are operational while a medium-term solution is found.”
Te Whatu Ora present Limit IT sprawl and move to more robust platforms after discovering more than 4,000 business and clinical system applications across the health system were either end-of-life or obsolete and were incurring significant technical debt.
In Budget 2024 released in June, NZ$330 million ($203 million) earmarked for the “Data and Digital Platforms and Innovation” and “Data and Digital Infrastructure and Capabilities – Enabling Health System Transformation” initiatives has been returned to government coffers as savings. Both initiatives, which include the national health information project, Hira, are aimed at implementing digital health reform.
Sponsorship for Free telehealth services were also cut in Budget 2024 because uptake was unsustainable and patients preferred to receive care in person rather than online or remotely.
