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IT system at Wellington Hospital a ‘constant risk’ to patient safety, says union

Source: Radio New Zealand

There have been performance issues and recurring outages with the IT system at Wellington Hospital. RNZ / REECE BAKER

The union for senior doctors says an IT system introduced this year at Wellington Hospital is a “constant risk” to patient safety.

The system was very slow and crashed all the time, Sarah Dalton – head of the Association Of Salaried Medical Specialists – told Midday Report on Monday.

Health New Zealand said there were “performance and stability issues” but it had safeguards in place to ensure patient information was not lost.

It would “keep pushing until the system is stable and reliable”.

RNZ has seen one email from the hospital front line that said: “Wellington’s IT disaster has become so bad that some specialists are now cancelling/cutting back their clinics as they can’t get through all their patients.”

Dalton said they had been trying for months to get a meeting with Health NZ about this, which they now expected to be in a week or so, as what Health NZ had called “teething” problems got worse.

“We now believe the failure of the system is a constant risk both to efficiency but more concerningly to patient safety,” she said.

It took two to three minutes to load a screen with a patient’s information – for example, what medications a sedated patient was on – then regularly crashed when multiple screens were needed.

“It’s pushing back to paper-based workarounds to try and care safely for patients.”

Health NZ chief information technology officer Darren Douglass said performance problems arose in March, and they set up a team to fix them, including working with the supplier, replacing older hardware and improving remote access.

Dalton said the system would be very useful in linking all sorts of medical specialists, if it worked.

She understood any fixes would likely take months.

This was linked to the government and Health NZ stripping $100m and key roles – mislabelled back office, said Dalton – from data and digital teams.

“We can see here a direct negative impact on patient care.”

The Public Service Association echoed that line: “We warned the government last year that cutting IT staff at Health NZ Te Whatu Ora was playing with fire.”

Health NZ’s Douglass said clinicians had processes in place to ensure critical information was not missed.

“While the system is still working, it can be slow to access functions and open clinical documents, especially during busy times,” he said in a statement on Monday.

“This performance issue and recurring outages have made it harder for clinicians to access patient information quickly.

“While the risk is low, any disruption is taken seriously and safeguards are in place to ensure critical patient information is not lost.”

Patient safety remained the top priority and urgent care was prioritised.

“While these issues can add time to some tasks, we are working hard to minimise any impact on wait times.”

The PSA called on the privacy commissioner to investigate.

“The privacy commissioner refused our request to investigate privacy risks to patient data last year,” national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said in a statement on Monday.

“We say he needs to think again – before patients are harmed and confidential health information is compromised.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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World’s largest indigenous education conference kicks off in Auckland

Source: Radio New Zealand

Pōwhiri for the start of four-day WIPCE 2025 conference. Tamaira Hook

The world’s largest indigenous education conference has kicked off in Auckland, bringing with it thousands of indigenous educators from around the world.

About 3000 people were welcomed by Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei for the World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education 2025 (WIPCE) with a pōwhiri at the city’s waterfront on Sunday.

Around 3800 delegates are expected to attend the conference at the Aotea Centre over the week.

Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is hosting the event which is set to be the largest academic conference hosted in New Zealand this year.

WIPCE 2025 attendees fill out Auckland’s Cloud for the beginning of the conference. Tamaira Hook

WIPCE 2025 Co-Chair and AUT Vice-Chancellor Damon Salesa said it was an honour to host such an extraordinary range of speakers.

“Each kaikōrero brings their unique perspectives and knowledge. This conference is an opportunity to listen, learn and be inspired by those who continue to lead and shape Indigenous education across the world,” he said.

WIPCE 2025 co-chair Damon Salesa (right) at the conference opening. Tamaira Hook

The four-day conference features keynote presentations from a number of Māori academics including educator Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith, linguistic and cultural revilitalists Professor Leonie Pihama and Raniera Proctor, legal academic Eru Kapa-Kingi and Māori movie star Cliff Curtis.

There are also a number of break out sessions, guest speakers and panels discussions featuring academics from around the world.

Professor Meihana Durie WIPCE 2025

WIPCE 2025 Co-Chair Meihana Durie said the gathering comes at a pivotal time for indigenous education and indigenous rights more broadly.

“We are immensely grateful for the pōwhiri yesterday hosted by iwi manaaki, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, which highlighted the sheer importance of those themes within the unique dimensions of Indigenous ceremony, language and ritual.”

“WIPCE is the only educational platform designed specifically for native peoples from around the world to come together to share our stories, our challenges and our successes with each other.” he said.

Tamaira Hook

Outside of the conference is the Te Ao Pūtahi, a free, public festival with live performances from Māori artists inlcluding kapa haka rōpu Ngā Tūmanako, Sons of Zion, Corrella, Jackson Owens and Betty-Anne and a number of food and gift stalls.

Tewnty-one cultural excursions named Te Ao Tirotiro will also be held across the city including an onboard waka sailing demonstration and a hāngi.

The conference ends on Thursday.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Heavy rain, humidity and warm nights to hit parts of the country

Source: Radio New Zealand

Heavy rain warnings and watches have been set over parts of the country as a warm air mass approaches the country. MetService/Screenshot

An active warm air mass will be “rung out like a sponge” over parts of the country this week, bringing heavy rain warnings, humidity and warm nights.

MetService issued orange heavy rain warnings for the next two days over parts of the North Island including Tauranga, Rotorua and Coromandel and a heavy rain watch over Hamilton, Taupo and New Plymouth.

Some of the South Island’s West Coast also received orange warnings with parts of Southland including Te Anau being on a strong wind watch.

Most of the warnings are set to be active from Tuesday and continue to Wednesday.

MetService meteorologist Alec Holden said the rain warnings and watches were due to different reasons for each island.

“For the South Island, we have a very large frontal feature that is crossing the island over the next couple of days,” he said.

“Ahead of it, it is directing a large, very moist and warm air mass almost straight from the tropics down over the top of the North Island. . . we’re expecting that to be wrung out like a sponge.”

The Bay of Plenty was a particular area of concern which currently had an orange warning, but there was a moderate chance of it turning into a red warning.

Although there was no warning set in place for Auckland, Holden said that could change as they were monitoring the area closely.

He also said with heavy rain warnings there was the risk of flooding and in parts of the North Island there was also a risk of thunderstorms developing in the “very energetic tropical air mass”.

The warm air mass, which acts similarly to an atmospheric river, would be coming to the North Island from the northeast of the country.

It is set to bring not only rain, but higher humidity and warm temperatures especially at night.

Holden said temperatures during the day would be within the average for this time of year, however, night-time temperatures are expected to be warmer than usual.

“Places like Auckland, for example, they only have like a four degree difference between their maximum daytime temperature and their minimum nighttime temperature over the next couple of days.”

Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be wet, but as the system starts to move away towards the end of Wednesday, a ridge of high pressure would give most of the country a “reprieve from the wet weather”.

Although heavy rain is forecasted for a majority of the country, Christchurch and the East Coast of the South Island are the places to be.

Holden said warm temperatures would hit those parts of the South Island, but very little rain is expected.

“There’s always the chance of something sneaking over, but it looks like they will, if they get anything, they will be quite unlucky.”

Earth Sciences New Zealand meteorologist Chris Brandolino said the weather activity forecasted over the next couple of days was not uncommon during a La Niña cycle.

“It’s consistent with La Niña, so La Niña has emerged in the pacific and La Niña tends to increase the odds for these types of air flows which increase the odds for impactful rainfall events”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Hundreds to commemorate loss of ancestors on Waerenga-A-Hika 160 years ago

Source: Radio New Zealand

Shaan Te Kani

Hundreds of people will this week commemorate the loss, arrest and deportation of their ancestors in a siege that took place 160 years ago on Waerenga-A-Hika near Gisborne.

Over five days, the pā was flattened, 71 Māori living at the pā and 11 government soldiers were killed and many more including elderly, women and children were captured, arrested and deported to the Chatham Islands.

The lands were partitioned and given to soldiers whose families today are sixth generation farmers, orchardists and viticulturists.

Artist, iwi historian and Gisborne District Councillor Nick Tupara’s five times great-grandfather was killed in the battle, he was a carver and teacher of the arts.

“His loss marks the total destruction of that school and the removal of our mātauranga and our knowledge and that weighs very heavily on the family,” he said. “From that point we took the name Kerekere from a reference to te Pōkerekere a deep intense darkness and not only a darkness because of the loss of ancestors land but also the loss of that ancestral knowledge.”

This years commemorations begin on Tuesday evening with the opening of the Waerenga-a-Hika exhibition at the Tairawhiti Museum, it features a collection of historic pieces including taonga from the battle and contemporary artworks.

On Saturday, there will also be a commemoration at the battle site.

Tupara said that by 1865 when the pā was attacked the East Coast was the only area that was untouched by war between the Crown and Māori.

“Colonial settlement was occurring pretty rapidly across the whole of the country and the Tairāwhiti was the last of all of that and eventually war was going to come here in some form or another.”

Waerenga-a-Hika was established where it was because it was a fertile area, whare wānanga that taught carving and weaving were also based there, he said.

“It was a place where people could feel safe and settled… it’s probably the last place I would classify as being a fortress or a place of military action, we have far stronger examples of that in our rohe, but this place was a place to gather, grow kai.”

Waerenga-ā-Hika pā in ruins after it was attacked in 1865. Alexander Turnbull Library Reference: 1/2-008137; F

Tupara said local iwi were well connected with the settler communities, many tīpuna had been baptised in the church and many had also married settlers.

The principle reason given for the attack on Waerenga-a-Hika was a clash between followers of the Pai Mārire religion and Europeans and Māori who opposed the religion, he said.

“My personal view on that is that was a tool to instil fear and anxiety amongst the settlers, to create significant worry to justify the intervention of troops.”

Tupara said another motivating factor was to clear the land for settlement.

With the exile of a large number of people to the Chatham Islands the land was surveyed and parcelled out to settlers, he said.

Tupara said he is hopeful that the commemorations can raise the consciousness of the battle among the local community.

“It’s remembered rather poorly, it’s remembered by the families who lost ancestors, it’s remembered by the hapū and the iwi who lost their land and their resources.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Man jailed after using fake identities to gain NZ residence

Source: Radio New Zealand

He was sentenced to three years in prison. RNZ

A man has been sentenced to three years in prison for using false identities and forged documents to obtains visas and residence in New Zealand.

Immigration NZ said the man, aged 50, and his 44-year-old partner arrived using the identities of Hungarian nationals.

Over the next five years, they submitted a series of fraudulent visa applications, including visitor, work, resident and citizenship applications, using forged documents and false declarations.

The couple admitted 16 charges of immigration and identity fraud when they appeared in the Auckland District Court.

The woman was sentenced to 11 months home detention.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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IT system at Wellngton Hospital a ‘constant risk’ to patient safety, says union

Source: Radio New Zealand

There have been performance issues and recurring outages with the IT system at Wellington Hospital. RNZ / REECE BAKER

The union for senior doctors says an IT system introduced this year at Wellington Hospital is a “constant risk” to patient safety.

The system was very slow and crashed all the time, Sarah Dalton – head of the Association Of Salaried Medical Specialists – told Midday Report on Monday.

Health New Zealand said there were “performance and stability issues” but it had safeguards in place to ensure patient information was not lost.

It would “keep pushing until the system is stable and reliable”.

RNZ has seen one email from the hospital front line that said: “Wellington’s IT disaster has become so bad that some specialists are now cancelling/cutting back their clinics as they can’t get through all their patients.”

Dalton said they had been trying for months to get a meeting with Health NZ about this, which they now expected to be in a week or so, as what Health NZ had called “teething” problems got worse.

“We now believe the failure of the system is a constant risk both to efficiency but more concerningly to patient safety,” she said.

It took two to three minutes to load a screen with a patient’s information – for example, what medications a sedated patient was on – then regularly crashed when multiple screens were needed.

“It’s pushing back to paper-based workarounds to try and care safely for patients.”

Health NZ chief information technology officer Darren Douglass said performance problems arose in March, and they set up a team to fix them, including working with the supplier, replacing older hardware and improving remote access.

Dalton said the system would be very useful in linking all sorts of medical specialists, if it worked.

She understood any fixes would likely take months.

This was linked to the government and Health NZ stripping $100m and key roles – mislabelled back office, said Dalton – from data and digital teams.

“We can see here a direct negative impact on patient care.”

The Public Service Association echoed that line: “We warned the government last year that cutting IT staff at Health NZ Te Whatu Ora was playing with fire.”

Health NZ’s Douglass said clinicians had processes in place to ensure critical information was not missed.

“While the system is still working, it can be slow to access functions and open clinical documents, especially during busy times,” he said in a statement on Monday.

“This performance issue and recurring outages have made it harder for clinicians to access patient information quickly.

“While the risk is low, any disruption is taken seriously and safeguards are in place to ensure critical patient information is not lost.”

Patient safety remained the top priority and urgent care was prioritised.

“While these issues can add time to some tasks, we are working hard to minimise any impact on wait times.”

The PSA called on the privacy commissioner to investigate.

“The privacy commissioner refused our request to investigate privacy risks to patient data last year,” national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said in a statement on Monday.

“We say he needs to think again – before patients are harmed and confidential health information is compromised.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Soldier facing court martial following accusations of strangling former partner

Source: Radio New Zealand

The accused soldier denies strangling his former partner who was also in the Defense Force at the time. RNZ / Jonathan Mitchell

A soldier is accused of strangling another soldier on two occasions in 2019.

The Army corporal is facing court martial after pleading not guilty to two charges of assaulting his former partner, who was also in the Defence Force at the time.

Both have name suppression.

In his opening address prosecutor Lieutenant Ben Ruback told the court martial that on two occasions the man became angry at the woman while he was drunk and strangled her.

On the first occasion the pair had been at a party outside of Burnham Military Camp and the woman was the sober driver, Ruback said.

In her evidence, the woman said she helped the man to his barracks because he was so intoxicated.

Once back in the barracks, he wanted to leave and continue partying but she wanted him to stay because she thought he was too drunk, the woman told the court.

“I was blocking the door and he got even more angry and he started strangling me towards the door,” she said.

The following morning there were marks on her neck and the accused asked her about them.

She told him he had strangled her and he said he did not remember but apologised, she said.

She did not tell anyone about being strangled because she wanted to protect her partner’s reputation and did not want people to know they were having problems.

Defence lawyer Andrew McCormick said the soldier admitted there were two incidents when he behaved badly but claimed he never strangled the woman.

On the first occasion his client says the woman was the aggressor, McCormick told the court.

On the second occasion the soldier accepted he pushed her against a post, but he claimed he did not put his hands around her throat, McCormick said.

“This isn’t the case of him saying – I didn’t do anything, she is completely lying. This is a case of him saying – yes, there were two flash point confrontations. Yes, I had been drinking. Yes, I have behaved badly. Yes, I have let myself down. Yes, I have treated her badly,” McCormick said.

“But he says I did not put my hands around her throat. I did not try to strangle her. I was not reckless about that either.”

During cross-examination, McCormick put to the woman she had only made the complaints in 2024 because the Defence Force was reviewing her retention in the army.

“You made these complaints because you were upset you were discharged from the Defence Force and he was still there,” McCormick said.

The woman said that was not true.

The court martial at Burnham Military Camp is set down for three days.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Kahureremoa Fleur Mantell jailed for more than $120k in false Covid-19 relief claims

Source: Radio New Zealand

File photo. RNZ/Marika Khabazi

An Auckland woman has been jailed for more than three years after she made false claims for more than $120,000 in Covid-19 relief.

Kahureremoa Fleur Mantell was sentenced in the Manukau District Court after she was found guilty of 33 dishonesty charges.

She pretended to run a business and used Small Business Cashflow Scheme and Resurgence Support Payment applications to get Covid-19 relief money.

The applications were made in her name and those of six other people.

Mantell dishonestly attempted to obtain $122,000 in income tax returns and Covid-19 relief money.

The total amount paid out was just under $69,000.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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Ministry of Education closer to making decision on Gloriavale Christian School’s future

Source: Radio New Zealand

Gloriavale Christian community is small, isolated place in Haupiri, West Coast. Jean Edwards

The Ministry of Education is reviewing Gloriavale Christian School’s response to officials’ concerns as it weighs up the school’s future.

Secretary for Education Ellen MacGregor-Reid wrote to the private school last month advising she was considering cancelling its registration after a second failed Education Review Office audit in as many years.

July’s ERO report found Gloriavale Christian School had not met three of eight registration criteria and was not a physically and emotionally safe space for students.

Gloriavale’s school leadership had five weeks to respond to the secretary’s letter with an initial deadline of 7 November. However, it was extended until Friday after the West Coast Christian community requested more information.

Ministry of Education Te Tai Runga (South) acting hautū (leader) Andrea Williams confirmed the ministry had received a response from Gloriavale.

“The Ministry received a response from the school on Friday and is now carefully reviewing it before making a decision,” she said.

“There is no set timeframe for this process, but the ministry will make sure it moves forward within a reasonable period. The school will be kept informed about when a decision can be expected.”

Education officials met Gloriavale school leaders on 23 July to express concerns about its compliance with registration requirements and issue a second formal “notice to comply”.

In August, Children’s Commissioner Claire Achmad called for the school’s urgent closure, saying she had zero confidence that students were safe.

The Gloriavale Leavers’ Support Trust favoured a special transitional model for the children’s education, if the school closed, saying the community’s hostels were not an appropriate place for homeschooling.

Under the Education and Training Act, the ministry could cancel the registration of a private school, if it no longer met the criteria, including providing suitable premises, staffing, curriculum, or ensuring student safety and wellbeing.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

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FENZ restructure poses ‘tremendous human cost, union says

Source: Radio New Zealand

The proposed changes at FENZ would be the biggest in 8 years. RNZ / Alexander Robertson

The union for volunteer firefighters says a restructure at Fire and Emergency (FENZ) poses a “tremendous human cost”.

FENZ is proposing to cut at least 140 non-firefighter jobs and scrap its regional structure in its biggest overhaul since it was set up in 2017.

The United Fire Brigades’ Association said “We understand there is a tremendous human cost to this proposed change so will be looking carefully at the proposal and will be making a submission through the Fire and Emergency consultation process.”

It encouraged its membership of 14,000 to give feedback, it said in a statement on Monday.

The association last year put out a report calling for more investment in volunteer firefighters, suggesting they were “hidden in plain sight”.

Hundreds of fire brigades are volunteer or hybrid volunteer-paid ones.

A change proposal document sets out to disestablish a raft of positions and set up new ones.

For instance, it showed eight of 13 roles in recruitment, including of volunteers, slated to go, but a new lead role for supporting volunteers coming in.

Training for volunteers would also be separated from that for career firefighters, with three new roles for managing volunteer training proposed.

“Dedicated teams for career and volunteer personnel are proposed to provide focused oversight and ensure consistency in quality,” it said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand