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The process to connect the Southern District to a South Island wide IT system has not gone smoothly, says Te Whatu Ora.
Health New Zealand chief data and digital, Leigh Donoghue, says in November last year the Southern hospitals moved to a new patient administration system known as the South Island Patient Information Care System (SI PICS).
SI PICS was already in use in Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, and South Canterbury.
Donoghue said any changeover to a new IT system was challenging, however the process of transferring to this new system had been particularly challenging.
Stuff have reported they had anonymous reports from staff that some patient records were missing and appointments have been sent to the wrong people.
There were known issues which were being addressed by the IT support team, he said.
"Any changeover to a new IT system is challenging, especially when the system being replaced has been in place for a long period of time. A period of adjustment is always to be expected. However, the process of transferring to SI PICS has been particularly challenging.
"This is partly due to older infrastructure which has complicated the transition. We are in the process of updating this infrastructure to further improve the service. It's also due to challenges arising from the data migration.
"Changing IT systems involves migrating data from the old to the new environment. This has not gone as smoothly as planned. There are known issues which are being addressed by our IT support team with fixes applied along with appropriate data validation. The team is working hard to get the issues resolved as quickly as possible."
He said he acknowledged the staff's frustration.
"We are working with all Southern staff to resolve issues and help them operate effectively in the new environment."
