# Health IT outages hurt patient care, minister says political

> Health NZ staff report regular IT outages affecting patient care, but minister calls it political.
- Title: Health IT outages hurt patient care, minister says political
- Summary: Health NZ staff report regular IT outages affecting patient care, but minister calls it political.
- Keywords: health nz, it outages, patient care, cancelled surgeries, missed appointments, simeon brown, public service association, association of salaried medical speciali, priority one outages, health digital investment plan, RNZ
- Source: RNZ — https://rnz.co.nz/news/health/2367874/regular-it-outages-impacting-patient-care-surveys-find-but-minister-dismisses-it-as-political
- Author: RNZ | Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa
- Published: 2026-11-05T20:06:36+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: health nz, it outages, patient care, cancelled surgeries, missed appointments, simeon brown, public service association, association of salaried medical speciali, priority one outages, health digital investment plan, politics, news
## Health NZ staff report IT issues
Two union surveys show thousands of Health NZ staff report IT problems affecting patient care, including cancelled surgeries and missed appointments.
## Surveys show 77% affected by IT issues
In the PSA survey, 77 percent of respondents said IT problems were affecting patient care, and 64 percent reported more IT problems in the previous year than the year before.
## Priority one outages average one per day
Information released under the Official Information Act showed Health NZ facilities averaged more than one priority one outage a day this past year.
## IT staff reduced by 39% in 2024-25
As part of the government's efforts to cut public service spending in 2024-25, there was a 39 percent reduction in data and digital staff employed by Health NZ.
## Merging IT systems caused problems
The merging of 20 separate IT systems into one - a project still a work in progress - as district health boards combined to create Te Whatu Ora, or Health NZ, under the previous Labour…
## Clinicians report direct patient impact
A Waikato anaesthetist reported cancelling theatre surgeries because they could not access patient imaging or labs.
## Fix times tripled to three weeks
The report claims in March the average fix time had tripled from just over a week to more than three weeks - and at one point there was a backlog of more than 4000 unresolved…
## Minister calls data 'shaky'
National Party campaign chair Simeon Brown called the data 'shaky', saying Health NZ had told the PSA the numbers were provisional and hadn't been through the usual validation process.
## Key takeaway

Health NZ staff report IT outages causing missed appointments and cancelled surgeries, but health minister dismisses it as political.