It has been reported that the body that manages New Zealand’s 16 billion-dollar health system uses just one singular Excel spreadsheet to manage its finances.
Health New Zealand was introduced in 2022 to replace 20 district health boards in the hopes that it would be more cost-effective and efficient.
This however was not the case and was quite the opposite prediction after Health New Zealand blew its whole budget leading to an investigation and report that found the organisation lost “control of the critical levers that drive financial outcomes” and had an “inability to identify and respond to the disconnect between expenditure and revenue.”
The report also found that one Excel spreadsheet was the primary data file used to manage financial performance, analysis, critical reporting and consolidation.
Many issues were found due to the heavy reliance on the spreadsheet including, human error and was easy to manipulate.
The report suggested that Health New Zealand is nowhere near where they are supposed to be.
“The use of an Excel spreadsheet file to track and report financial performance for a NZ$28bn expenditure organisation raises significant concerns, particularly when other more appropriate systems are present on the IT landscape,” the report states.
Photo Credit: Microsoft
