New Zealand's Health Authority Faces Budget Management Challenges with Excel

In a surprising revelation, New Zealand's Health New Zealand (HNZ), the agency responsible for overseeing the public health system, has been managing its staggering budget of EUR14.5 billion using a single Excel spreadsheet. This method has led to substantial delays in the processing of monthly financial reports, with data collection taking between 12 to 15 days, followed by an additional five days for analysis, as highlighted in a recent report by Deloitte.

The report was commissioned after HNZ exceeded its budget for the years 2023 and 2024. It noted that the reliance on one spreadsheet to consolidate financial reports from various districts resulted in significant complications, including difficulties in tracking expenditures, a high incidence of errors due to typographical mistakes, and outdated interim figures caused by protracted processing times.

Concerns have been raised regarding the appropriateness of using such a basic tool for tracking and reporting the financial performance of an organization with an annual expenditure of NZD 28 billion, especially when more suitable systems are available within the IT ecosystem.

The challenges extend beyond the budget management issues. Health Minister Simeon Brown recently disclosed that HNZ operates with 6,000 distinct applications, averaging one application for every sixteenth employee. Additionally, the agency manages approximately 100 different networks.

Brown further mentioned that the senior leadership team has only recently begun holding weekly in-person meetings and continues to operate from various offices, despite many members being based in Auckland. HNZ was established in 2022 to unify 20 separate agencies from individual districts into a cohesive organization aimed at improving healthcare delivery across the nation.

This situation raises critical questions about the efficiency and effectiveness of health management in New Zealand, as well as the potential need for a comprehensive overhaul of the systems in place to ensure better financial oversight and operational coherence within HNZ.