- New Zealand health finances are followed with Excel
- The body operates 6,000 applications and 100 digital networks
- No immediate plans to modernize its systems
A recently published report revealed that Health New Zealand (HNZ) is based on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet as its main financial management tool.
Established in 2022, HNZ was designed to replace 20 district health councils in the name of profitability and consistency of services, but so far, the body is based on basic calculation software that has been deemed unsuitable for purposes.
A Deloitte report revealed that HNZ had lost control of the “critical levers that stimulate financial results”, that he mainly blamed “the inability to identify and respond to disconnection between spending and income” among other factors.
New Zealand health care has been executed with an Excel spreadsheet
HNZ reported a deficit of $ 1.013 billion compared to a balanced budget in 2022/23, and by 2023/24, Doilette affirms that the financial challenges were “increasingly obvious”.
Overall, the report has specified five major problems with the Excel system: hard code financial data made updates and tracing difficult sources; Errors such as incorrectly released accumulations were not collected until later; Changes in previous periods would not flow into the consolidated data; Limited monitoring allows easy handling of data; And the entry and the changes are subject to simple human errors, such as typing flaps or missing zeros.
“The use of an Excel calculation sheet file to monitor and report financial performance for an expense organization of $ 28 billion raises significant concerns,” said Deloitte.
In addition, the Minister of Health, Simeon Brown, recently revealed in a speech that HNZ operates around 6,000 applications and 100 digital networks – he described the digital infrastructure of the health system as “fragmented”.
Despite the damage report, the Minister of Health has not revealed any immediate project to replace Excel. A potential health infrastructure entity is envisaged for the management of physical and digital assets, but no calendar has been set. Techradar Pro contacted Health New Zealand for a comment.
