Health project’s $6.2m blowout

The National Oracle Solution is jointly managed by NZ Health Partnerships and the country’s 20 DHBs.

A national district health board computer system designed to replace ageing finance and supply chain systems blew its budget by more than $6 million.

The National Oracle Solution is jointly managed by NZ Health Partnerships and the country’s 20 DHBs. Until now, health bosses have refused to detail the costs of Oracle, citing commercial sensitivities. However, following a complaint by Stuff to the Office of the Ombudsman, NZ Health Partnerships confirmed Oracle has gone $6.2m over its budget, having already cost taxpayers $10.5m. Work on Oracle began in April 2015 and was born out of another programme dubbed Finance, Procurement and Supply Chain. Oracle inherited $10.5m of funding from the supply chain project, which had an overall budget of $88m.

Waikato DHB has been a key supporter of the initiative, which missed two go-live dates.

Oracle is now being used at Waikato Hospital after its third go-live date was pushed out to July 1 this year.

NZ Health Partnerships initially declined to detail how many staff and contractors were assigned to work on Oracle.

It has since confirmed 24 staff and contractors were assigned to Oracle, with 15 workers based in Hamilton, six in Auckland, two in Christchurch and one in Wellington. NZ Health Partnerships chief executive Megan Main said all 20 DHBs had renewed their commitments to Oracle.

Oracle has been hampered by difficulties with allegations of poor communication from those leading the project and low staff morale. A health sector insider, who asked not to be named, said Oracle had suffered from a lack of oversight by its DHB stakeholders.

Oracle isn’t the first IT-related blowout the Waikato DHB has been associated with.

In 2017, it was revealed the Midland eSPACE programme had blown its budget by $28m.

That project, which has had its budget increased from $47m to $75m, is tasked with overhauling the region’s health records.

In April, the Waikato DHB abandoned its showpiece virtual health service, SmartHealth.

An independent report found the project’s costs blew out to $25.7m, $8.91m more than anticipated.