Hospitals in Auckland and Northland were impacted by the outage. (File photo) Photo: 123rf.com
A massive IT outage at hospitals in Auckland and Northland is being blamed on cuts to Health NZ's digital team, by a union representing public service workers.
The Public Service Association (PSA) said its members were forced to use pen and paper during a computer systems outage lasting more than twelve hours from Wednesday night to Thursday morning.
It said the outage had prevented clinicians from accessing patient information and blocked communications.
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons told RNZ there was "complete chaos" as staff were forced to use paper-based systems and whiteboards.
"This is entirely predictable, given the government forced cuts on Health New Zealand's data and digital experts," Fitzsimons said.
An internal memo sent to hospital staff last night advised them to use whiteboards and paper tracking forms.
"If hand-writing blood tube labels, please be super careful," it read.
"Lab results will be phoned through to areas and then sent on paper via the Lamson (pneumatic tube) systems - please make sure you check it regularly."
In a statement, Health NZ's executive director for the northern region Andrew Brant confirmed the outage had affected several hospitals.
"Health New Zealand hospitals in Te Tai Tokerau, Waitematā, Auckland and Counties Manukau experienced an IT outage yesterday impacting some clinical and operational systems," he said.
"The outage lasted around 12 hours with services restored to all impacted hospitals in the early hours of this morning."
He said patient care continued safely during those hours.
"We are currently completing an incident debrief to identify any potential opportunities to improve our systems," he said.
It comes less than a month after online portal Manage My Health was hacked and patient data held ransom.
"Workers in data and digital at Health New Zealand are deeply frustrated, they've seen cuts forced upon their workforce, they've lost experts who could have had more to give, and could have helped in these crises," she said.
"They know the cuts the Government forced on Health New Zealand are leading to these outages... It will have tragic consequences."
Fitzsimons called for the government to immediately review funding for digital health services and "admit its mistakes in cutting digital services expertise."
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