1302 (2026). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister of Health

1302 (2026). Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall to the Minister of Health: How many Datacom contractors are currently engaged on Te Whatu Ora's IT service desk, and what functions are they performing, if any?

Hon Simeon Brown: I am advised that 23 Datacom contractors currently work on Health New Zealand's IT service desk, where they answer calls and triage requests. As the Member will be aware, our Government is focused on building a healthcare system that has patients at its centre and ensuring reliable systems for patients and staff, following previous decisions that led to around 6,000 individual application systems being used at Health New Zealand. As I said in the House on 28 January 2026, over the past two years, Health New Zealand has introduced 24/7 monitoring devices and systems to detect, quarantine, and respond to cyber incidents. These measures further strengthen the reliability and security of our health IT systems.