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District Health Board IT initiative gathers momentum


District Health Board IT initiative gathers momentum
Ministry of Health joins DHBs for National Infrastructure Platform

Auckland, 29 April 2015: The Ministry of Health, along with the Bay of Plenty, MidCentral, Taranaki, Lakes, Whanganui, Nelson Marlborough and Southern DHBs have joined the four Northern Region DHBs (Northland, Auckland, Waitemata and Counties Manukau) by entering into agreements for the National Infrastructure Platform (NIP) provided by IBM.

The NIP initiative, developed by Health Benefits Limited (HBL), will utilise IBM’s cloud-based IT infrastructure services, developed specifically for government. The Platform will increase security, reliability, service levels and reduce the risk of critical outages.

DHBs will migrate their IT infrastructure to NIP over the next three years, with the first expected to begin its transition in August 2015. The IT infrastructure hosts the applications used every day in the delivery of health care - from radiology and oncology services to patient records and surgical support systems.

Along with the significant reduction in day-to-day operational risk, the NIP will provide financial benefits of $30 million - $50 million (total cost of ownership over 10-years) across DHBs.

IBM has partnered with global transition leader Racemi, as well as New Zealand companies Computer Concepts Ltd and Vocus Communications (FX Networks) to deliver the project.

DHBs will migrate workloads from their current 40 data centres of varying size, age, quality and adherence to standards, to two IBM-managed world class data centres with higher security classifications – one in Auckland, the other in Christchurch.

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The IBM solution is fully aligned to the Government ICT Strategy and Action Plan to 2017 which promotes the provision of better, faster and more secure services to New Zealanders through the use of information technology.

Director of the National Health IT Board, Graeme Osborne, says “we recognise the increased reliance of the health sector on real-time online technology and information. The time is right to implement a fit for purpose platform for the future.”

Lakes DHB General Paediatrician and Health Benefits Limited Clinical Council Chair, Dr Johan Morreau, says “the NIP is far from an isolated back-office IT project. It will also provide a range of direct and indirect clinical benefits.”

Clinical benefits of NIP include:

A reduction in capital expenditure will see less money spent on IT infrastructure, allowing DHBs to re-allocate funds to frontline, patient-facing services

Reduced financial constraints on projects that previously would require large upfront IT infrastructure costs will mean opportunities for clinical innovation are not lost or side-lined

Future capacity needs for IT services are catered for

The standardised Platform will lead to enhanced medical applications, allowing all health services, regardless of size, to benefit from clinical innovation

Easier, quicker delivery of IT infrastructure will enable clinical projects and innovation to be trialled in a faster and more cost effective manner

The increased security and reliability of the Platform will ensure less critical outages, meaning clinical records and applications are safe and available when needed.

Health Benefits Limited is working to secure back to back agreements with the remaining nine DHBs.

IBM is one of three providers to government of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) delivered through a panel administered by the Department of Internal Affairs. IaaS enables DHBs to purchase their IT infrastructure on demand, allowing them to only pay for what they need, when they need it, without the distraction and burden of maintaining and owning their own infrastructure.

-Ends-

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