Hospitals lagging in work on Y2K: study

By Audrey Young

political reporter

Most hospitals are making dismal progress in preparing defences against the 2000 bug, a report to the cabinet by the Y2K project office indicates.

There are concerns about hospitals providing adequate levels of safety.
Even the Ministry of Health, which has been doing its own Y2K-compliance monitoring, of the country's hospitals, scores an "unsatisfactory" rating in the assessment.

Three hospitals may not be compliant at all by the deadline, warns the report, prepared for the cabinet by the Y2K project office, in the State Services Commission.

Those hospitals and other state agencies, including the police, have been singled out for special mention as needing to get cracking: Northland Health Ltd; Good Health Wanganui; Wairarapa Health Ltd; Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Corporation; Department of Work and Income; Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; Defence Force; Radio New Zealand; Department of Conservation; Maritime Safety Authority; Police; and Customs Service.

"Most agencies in the health sector raise major concerns," says the report, released yesterday by the Associate Minister of State Services, Maurice Williamson.

"Most hospitals have not made sufficient progress towards Y2K readiness to provide assurance that they will be able to provide uninterrupted services with adequate levels of safety. There are similar concerns about the level of progress in the Health Funding Agency and the Pharmaceutical Management Agency (Pharmac)."

Only four agencies in the health sector have made satisfactory progress: the Blood Service, Auckland Healthcare Services, Eastbay Health, Coast Health Care, and Canterbury Health.

The Minister of Health Wyatt Creech said he would send "a stern message" to the health organisations named that they must be properly prepared.
"The idea of this exercise is to nip any problems in the bud. There's still time. This was a bit of a rev-up."

The director of the project office, John Belgrave, said the assessments were based on information provided in late 1998 and most agencies would have made progress since then.

Northland Health's chief executive, Ken Whelan, panned the assessment.
"Since that snapshot exercise last year, Northland Health has progressed steadily to the satisfaction of both our own board of directors, who are taking a keen interest in achieving compliance, and the Ministry of Health."

The State Services Commission auditor "had minimal knowledge of the complex systems operated by health and hospital services and of the health sector in general."

Northland Health was "on track to be fully ready" before the end of the year.
Good Health Wanganui said the service had "been slow off the blocks and lagged behind others in the latter part of last year but major advances have been made as planned."

The police Deputy Commissioner, Barry Matthews, said he was confident its compliance programme would ensure the police computer systems operated without interruption when 2000 began.