The clutter persisted for two years under the new centralised agency, which began consolidating them in July 2024.
Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Health New Zealand (HNZ) is getting rid of hundreds of old websites and says it is saving millions by doing so.
At the same time, one of its hospital’s phone numbers has been confused online with a Timaru cafe’s and Health NZ says in an online post that it has “asked Google to fix this”.
The agency inherited 344 websites about specific conditions – one is called “death docs”, another Mpox toolkit – or places, such as the sites of the 20 district health boards that preceded HNZ, or actions such as appointment booking websites.
“Many legacy websites were poorly maintained, posed technical and security risks, were no longer fit for purpose” or did not meet government standards, HNZ told the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, which represents senior doctors.
The clutter persisted for two years under the new centralised agency, which began consolidating them in July 2024.
It was “making significant savings by bringing together hundreds of legacy and local websites into a smaller number of secure, accessible national channels”, acting chief IT officer Darren Douglass said in a statement.
By the end of March, HNZ estimated it had saved $21.4m in one-off savings from not having to upgrade platforms, and ongoing savings from lower hosting and support costs, reduced duplication and improved staff productivity.
“These benefits are expected to continue to accrue as remaining sites are consolidated.”
It had spent $150,000 on an external consultant for development services, but the other work was done in-house.
Hospital or cafe?
Photo: Supplied/Screenshot
The cafe-hospital mix-up came to light in a post by Health NZ South Canterbury.
“Just a quick note – Currently, if you google ‘phone number for Timaru Hospital’ Google’s AI will sometimes suggest you should instead call Sopheze Coffee Lounge & Catering.”
RNZ tried this and got the cafe number. We called but no one picked up.
“Please note that Timaru Hospital’s number is 03 687 2100. To avoid any confusion: Sopheze = Coffee & Catering … Timaru Hospital = Surgeries & medical procedures,” said the online post.
RNZ has asked HNZ if it has got this sorted out.
‘Public confusion’
Among the hundreds of old websites was My Covid Record, Starship Children’s Hospital’s website, lots of public health campaign sites and workforce data portals.
Some were set up in partnerships with third parties, some were internal only and some had already been decommissioned.
“Decisions to consolidate or decommission sites were informed by user research and behavioural data, including direct user testing and insights from tools such as Google Analytics and HotJar,” Douglass said.
The umbrella site was now at www.healthnz.govt.nz. HNZ told the ASMS it did not think that would get confused with the policy-related Ministry of Health website, and that if it had called it tewhatuora.govt.nz when every other reference is “Health New Zealand” that could have caused public confusion.
It gave a month to six weeks’ warning of closing a site, said Douglass.
“This includes placing on-site notifications or banners on the affected website, directly informing relevant internal stakeholders, and implementing page level redirects to ensure continuity of access.”
That was to make sure bookmarks, QR codes, printed URLs and external links still worked.
ASMS said the new URL was very similar to the Ministry of Health’s website.
“The public deserves some clear communication on this,” it said on Monday. “There’s irony in the way Health NZ says it’s concerned about ‘public confusion’ over retaining the Te Whatu Ora web address, while all its email addresses remain @tewhatuora.govt.nz.
“It’s also a concern that Health NZ doesn’t seem to have any plan to tell it’s main stakeholders – patients – about these changes, when these websites are where people go to find information on care they need.”
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