The Government must urgently reverse the proposed deep cuts at Health NZ’s IT workforce in the wake of the latest privacy breach at the organisation.

Health NZ today confirmed an IT security incident in October 2024 that resulted in unauthorised access to some staff information from 2020 to 2024 at Capital, Coast & Hutt Valley, and Wairarapa districts.

"This is just more proof that the damaging cuts to Data and Digital must be reversed, or more sensitive patient and staff information will be put at risk," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association for Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

Health NZ Te Whatu Ora announced in December plans to cut 47% of roles in the Data and Digital Directorate, resulting in the loss of 1120 roles (including vacancies), all to save $100m.

"This is another wake-up call, one nobody should need, that the IT systems protecting sensitive information are already fragile - we urge the Minister of Health to do the right thing and tell his Ministry to reverse these cuts before it’s too late.

"Data & Digital staff warned Health NZ last year about the rising risks if the cuts went ahead but these fell on deaf ears.

"It’s why we asked the Privacy Commissioner to investigate because of the huge gamble with patient privacy and safety we believe Health NZ is taking with these poorly thought through cuts.

"New Zealanders rightly expect that their private information as patients is held securely, but how can anyone have confidence that the proposed cuts won’t make the situation worse?

"Health NZ has important obligations under the Health Information Privacy Code and the Privacy Act, but we don’t believe the risks of breaching these obligations have been properly analysed in the rush to save money.

"The Data & Digital workforce is already under incredible pressure keeping legacy systems going and introducing new modern state of the art systems for our centralised health organisation.

"Enough is enough. The latest breach should be ringing alarm bells in the Beehive. We urge the Minister to stop the cuts and reassure New Zealanders their information will be safe and secure."

© Scoop Media