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Doctors, nurses at South Island hospitals plagued by IT issues

Source: Radio New Zealand

The latest issues follow at least four major IT outages at public hospitals last month. RNZ

Doctors and nurses at South Island hospitals have been struggling with clinical documents not being displayed or not being saved.

Health NZ on Monday issued a critical priority notice about service degradation of its electronic clinical record system that the South uses.

The notice at 12.30pm was resolved just after 4pm.

RNZ was told the example of a doctor losing some patient discharge summaries that they then had to recall and do again.

Someone familiar with the situation said the doctor talked about “the devastation of how much information has been lost that he has to re enter [and] time for which he does not have”.

“It’s all very well to have plans, intentions and work-around but when this is a daily issue it becomes very difficult, demoralising and dangerous. Who’s to say this House Officer is going to recall all that needs to go into the discharge summaries when he gets back to them?”

Health NZ has been approached for comment.

‘Fixing longstanding issues’

This follows at least four major IToutages at public hospitals last month.

In some, clinicians lost access to patient records that tracked medication and lab results.

Health NZ’s acting chief information officer Darren Douglass recently wrote to staff that “we are investing more than $200 million this year in essential upgrades to our core digital infrastructure and the systems people rely on”.

That would include replacing outdated hardware and “fixing longstanding issues that have built up over time”.

The $200m was from existing expenditure made up of depreciation funded investments (for example, lifecycle replacements and upgrades) and Crown expenditure (the drawdown of the balance of funding allocations from Budget 2021, 2022, and 2025), Health NZ said.

In 2024 about $300m was cut from its data and digital spending and scores of jobs.

‘The impact can be serious and immediate’

An internal memo about trying to improve the response when IT failed said, “when something fails, especially at scale, the impact can be serious and immediate: disrupting care, delaying treatment, or stalling vital work”.

Health NZ has repeatedly told the public it had workarounds and plans to protect patient care during outages.

It also said three of the four outages in January involved outside vendors, and it was working with them to speed up the response.

This had echoes internally, according to the memo late last month with reference to clinicians having trouble calling for IT help:

“Digital Services has listened to your feedback that it’s not always clear what to do, navigating support channels can be confusing, and response times have been lengthy.

“We’ve made changes to how incidents are prioritised, managed, and communicated.”

Work was going on to speed up the IT service desk response from three minutes to under two, set up a single 0800 number for the service desk, and put out a user guide so staff would know “what channels should you use”.

Health NZ told RNZ last week it was moving from regional IT service desks to a national model so support was clearer and more consistent.

It also said, “When there is a significant IT incident, our priority is restoring services safely and supporting clinical teams to continue care.

“We have established response and escalation processes in place, and we draw on expertise from across the country and our vendors to resolve issues as quickly as possible. Patient safety remains the central focus throughout.”

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T20 cricket World Cup: Black Caps chasing place in Super Eight stage

Source: Radio New Zealand

Black Caps batter Glenn Phillips www.photosport.nz

The Black Caps can secure their place in the Super Eight stage of the T20 World Cup with victory over Canada tonight and shouldn’t have too many problems achieving it.

However, there remains some concern about how the New Zealand side will perform against the top teams later in the tournament.

New Zealand were beaten 4-1 by India in last month’s T20 series and while they opened the world cup with wins over Afghanistan and the UAE, they crashed back down to earth with a seven wicket loss to South Africa in their last game.

The Black Caps weren’t at their best batting against South Africa, particularly in the power play. They were four down by the seventh over, leaving plenty of work for the middle order to do. The bowlers also struggled to make inroads into the Proteas batting line-up.

All-rounder Glenn Phillips didn’t think the inconsistency they showed in the series against India and the loss to South Africa is a major issue.

“There’s not necessarily been a pattern per se,” Phillips said.

“If our top order’s gone down, then our middle order stepped up. And, sometimes it just happens to be the way that the top order gets off to a start and then the middle can’t go through. So that’s just the nature of T20 cricket when you’re trying to keep the momentum going the whole time.

“If you look at the options the boys took, they’re in really clear mindsets. Obviously, it just comes down to execution at the end of the day.

“And then with the ball as well, we’re just trying to make sure that we’re hitting our straps as much as possible. If we didn’t bowl as well as we have on previous days, then we look at that and we go, we can be better on the next day and that’s fine.”

If New Zealand bats first against Canada in Chennai they would like to get close to setting a target of 200. A score they haven’t managed to score yet in the tournament.

With victory expected in this game the selectors may consider rotating a few players, however they may also be keen to play some of their regulars back into form.

The two sides have met three times in ODI World Cup’s with New Zealand winning all three, but this is their first clash in T20I’s.

New Zealand will be without Lockie Ferguson for the match as he has returned home for the birth of his child. Kyle Jamieson could take his place in the side, while spinner Ish Sodhi is another option.

Meanwhile, tournament organisers have approved the inclusion of off-spinning all-rounder Cole McConchie into the Black Caps squad as a replacement for the injured Michael Bracewell.

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Supreme Halberg Award winner Hamish Kerr sets sights on world record

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand high jumper Hamish Kerr is the Supreme Winner at The 63rd Halberg Awards. 2026. Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz

Supreme Halberg Award winner Hamish Kerr has set himself some lofty goals to achieve over the next few years and it includes a tilt at the world record.

Kerr won the New Zealand Sportsman of the Year Award and the Supreme Award for his feats in 2025 which included winning the World Championship title for the first time and claiming the Diamond League title.

“To be honoured for those achievements (at the Halberg Awards) was very special,” Kerr told RNZ.

However, what the Olympic champion has done in the last two years is spurring him on to higher things.

The 29-year-old Cantabrian has always been motivated by jumping higher and has said with that comes results.

“I came into this sport with just this desire to want to jump higher and that is the amazing thing about athletics it is so measurable.

“That goal to see where the limit is, with how high I can jump, has not been achieved yet.”

Kerr is in the middle of a heavy training block and will open his season at the National Championships in Auckland in early March.

He will defend his Diamond League title and Commonwealth Games titles this year and improving his personal best from 2:36m to 2:40m is the aim for 2026.

Hamish Kerr during the International Athletics Meet in Christchurch, 2025. © Photosport Ltd 2025 www.photosport.nz

Only 16 men have jumped 2:40m or higher and the last person did it in 2014.

“It is definitely the target for this year and to achieve that would be an amazing honour, but we also know there is more in the tank.”

He is also inspired by the thought of challenging the world record of 2:45m set by Cuban Javier Sotomayor in 1993.

Kerr realises it would be quite an achievement, but it’s one he has put plenty of thought into.

“With my team we wrote down all the things we think we could optimise and it came out as quite a big list. So that is really gratifying to know that even after all these years there are still a lot of stones that we haven’t turned over yet.

“I think in the next few years if we can start flipping a few of those over there is a decent chance that we’ll be able to get a number of those centimetres.”

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Insurance price drop for some households – as other struggle to get it at all

Source: Radio New Zealand

The median price for insurance for a large house in Auckland had dropped 11 percent year-on-year, Consumer NZ said. RNZ

*Clarification: This article has been updated to clarify AA Insurance’s policy

Aucklanders may finally be getting some relief on their insurance premiums – but the same cannot be said for Wellington and Christchurch, and some people are struggling to get it at all.

Consumer NZ said its latest survey of house and contents insurance premiums showed the median price for insurance for a large house in Auckland had dropped 11 percent year-on-year.

But in Wellington and Christchurch, the cost of insurance was up 10 percent.

Wellington was the most expensive city in the country for house insurance. The median cost of house and contents cover for a standard home was $3824 a year, Consumer’s insurance expert Rebecca Styles said.

Dunedin has the cheapest home insurance options, with the median cost for house and contents insurance for a standard home coming in at $2227.

The quotes were based on a couple with a standard-sized house insured for $560,000 and contents for $90,000, and a family of four with a large house insured for $840,000 and contents for $140,000.

Styles said people could often save money by shopping around.

“When we compared policies with the same excess and sum insured across the six centres, we found the median potential saving was about $550.

“More than eight in 10 people have had the same insurance provider for at least three years. When people decide to switch, it’s usually because of price, and with some of the savings available, we can see why.”

She said people who could find a better price elsewhere could use that to try to negotiate a discount with their current provider.

Opting for a higher excess could also mean lower premiums. But Styles said people should not set their excess so high they could not cover it if they had to claim.

“Ask your insurer if your premiums would be cheaper if you installed an alarm or security cameras – the savings might subsidise the installation costs. If you can afford to, pay your premiums annually – you should get a discount.”

Styles said 1 percent of the 3000 people who responded to the survey said they could not switch because no other provider would offer insurance.

The Auckland drop was coming on the back of a large spike after Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary weekend flooding, she said. It could be that flood mitigation efforts and infrastructure improvements were also reducing risk.

But people in high risk areas were likely to find it harder to find insurance, she said.

“I think in Wellington and Christchurch, it’s the same old thing of earthquakes, floods and landslides. And it just means that we’re paying more and more for insurance in those regions.

“With the reports of AA Insurance not covering some postcodes, and I think other insurers are weighing up risk across the country, they’re always monitoring their risk portfolios and making sure they don’t have too much risk in one area more so than another. And, if we don’t do anything about a climate adaptation framework, practically in terms of infrastructure – there’s just more and more frequent extreme weather events and flooding – if the infrastructure doesn’t keep up with that, I think prices will just keep going up and up.”

AA Insurance has implemented a temporary pause on new house and landlord policies in a small number of areas across New Zealand.

If someone was struggling to find suitable cover, they could contact the Natural Hazards Commission and ask about its natural hazards cover, which offered more limited protection, she said. “It’s sort of the insurance of last resort for natural hazards. So it would be for your house, it wouldn’t be for your contents.”

She said the government’s investigation into the insurance market would help in terms of giving people assurance about whether they were paying fair price.

“We eagerly await the outcome of that, given it’ll be at least six months.”

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Storms destroy Horowhenua grower’s long berry tunnels

Source: Radio New Zealand

Twisted steel and roofless berry tunnels following the storms. SUPPLIED/CAM LEWIS

Storms across the North Island have destroyed a Horowhenua grower’s large berry tunnels, but power to the milking shed has since returned.

Severe weather over the weekend thrust five North Island districts into states of emergency; Manawatū, Rangitīkei, Tararua, Waipā and Ōtorohanga.

At Lewis Farms near Levin, strong gusts smashed 100m long berry tunnels, ripping off roofs and twisting steel.

Milk collection was scheduled for late Tuesday once downed trees were cleared from the farm’s tanker tracks and roads.

Owner and managing director of the family business, Cam Lewis, said the team was safe which was the main thing, but there was significant damage to the farm.

Goodbye to the roof over the berry tunnels at the Lewis Farm in Horowhenua. SUPPLIED/CAM LEWIS

“The farms are a bit of a mess at the moment,” he said.

“Worst for us is the strawberries. So our tunnel houses and the crop itself have been particularly hard hit by the wind.”

Lewis said while many of the tunnels were still standing, he estimated about two of the seven hectares the tunnels covered had sustained damage.

Strong winds smashed the berry farm in Horowhenua. SUPPLIED/CAM LEWIS

“We feel we’re pretty geared up for handling wind, but unfortunately this time around, it came in a completely different direction to what the farm’s built to handle and to what we would normally expect.

“So lots and lots of tunnel houses with roofs gone and twisted steel and heaps of our plants lying on the ground, which isn’t ideal.”

As well as growing berries and asparagus, the farm had just under 900 dairy cows across two sites.

Power to the milking sheds was still out by Monday afternoon, when Lewis said he expected the outage to end soon.

“I think there’s a bit over 400 girls sitting out there at the moment wondering why they haven’t been milked this morning.”

Damage to berry tunnels at Lewis Farms in Horowhenua. SUPPLIED/CAM LEWIS

Power returned to the shed by Monday evening, so the cows were “very relieved”, he said.

It was the second power outage at the farm since Christmas.

Lewis said it was time to think about adding a generator to the fleet.

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Washout at single lane bridge cuts off several settlements in southern Wairarapa

Source: Radio New Zealand

The single-lane bridge to Lake Ferry, Wairarapa, has been gouged out by floodwaters. Supplied / South Wairarapa District Council

A washout at a single lane bridge has completely cut off several settlements in southern Wairarapa, including Lake Ferry and Cape Palliser.

Torrential rain, which began on Sunday night, caused widespread flooding in rural and coastal areas, but the already isolated communities are now completely cut off, after the Lake Ferry Road bridge over the Turangaui River fell away overnight.

The bridge is the only access by road to communities in Lake Ferry, and along the Cape Palliser coast, such as Whāngaimoana and Ngawi.

South Wairarapa District Council said the the bridge was located between Warrens Road and the junction with Cape Palliser Road.

“The bridge is only one lane and is the main access route to Lake Ferry and Cape Palliser. This means those communities cannot currently be reached by road.

“Road crews and contractors are on site working urgently to repair the damage and reopen the road. The road is expected to reopen later this afternoon.”

Pirinoa Station farmer Guy Didsbury told Morning Report the bridge had been “gouged out” and following a wellfare check on a neighbour, Whāngaimoana Beach local Terry Shubkin went to see the damage for herself.

She said a four-wheel drive was necessary before even reaching the bridge.

“But even if you could pass that, you get to the bridge and the bridge itself is washed out.

“There’s about a three-metre gap.”

Despite the washout, Shubkin wasn’t too concerned about being trapped.

“We are lucky compared to other people, we are well set-up here.

“We have lost our water pump, but we do have a 10,000L tank here I just have to figure out how to get the freshwater out of it.”

Shubkin said other residents had floodwaters right through their properties – “they’re not so lucky”.

The storm itself was “pretty rough and scary” when it hit on Sunday night, she said with rising floodwaters stopping just two inches shy of the house.

“We do flood, but this is the worst I’ve seen in 23 years.”

Shubkin said power had since returned and she was impressed with Civil Defence on Monday who were undertaking door-knocks when the weather was still severe.

“When the storm was … still quite bad they actually came down the street a couple of times to check on people.”

Wairarapa Emergency Operations Centre Controller, Simon Taylor said the main priority on Tuesday was to establish communication with rural and coastal communities and understand their needs.

A reconnaissance helicopter flight on Monday was turned around due to bad weather.

It flew from Masterton to Lake Ferry and Cape Palliser, but the severe weather prevented its flight over Tora, Flat Point, Riversdale, Castlepoint and Mataikona.

He said food had been delivered to some rural communities in South Wairarapa by emergency services in four-wheel drives.

He understood people were “tired and frustrated,” particularly where power and water supplies had been disrupted and asked people to stay safe and check on their neighbours.

“One of the key things in the Wairarapa, we are a community that looks after ourselves and our neighbours.”

On Tuesday morning, Powerco said 1148 homes were still without power across Wairarapa, down from 3300 on Monday evening.

A boil water notice remained in place for Pirinoa following the inundation of the water treatment plant.

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Farmer rescues sheep stranded in Banks Peninsula floodwaters

Source: Radio New Zealand

Farm assistant wades in to rescue stranded sheep after huge downpours at Teddington, Banks Peninsula. Supplied

A Banks Peninsula farm worker had to swim stranded sheep to safety after huge downpours at Teddington.

More than 280mm of rain has fallen on parts of the Banks Peninsula from Sunday night to Tuesday morning. MetService meteorologist Silvia Martino said persistent rain was expected for much of the rest of Tuesday. An orange heavy rain warning was in until 6pm

Farmer Sir David Carter said more than 250mm of rain fell overnight at his property.

“The rain gauge was overflowing this morning. I’ve never seen so much rain and I’ve been farming here for 40 years.”

Carter said paddocks were flooded and trees were are down, which left him stranded on the farm.

“We moved stock to higher ground last night because we knew this was coming, but a farm assistant had to swim nine sheep to safety at 6.30am.

Farm worker rescues stranded sheep after huge downpours at Teddington, Banks Peninsula. Supplied

“I’d say there will be slips on the hills but we won’t know the extent of the damage until the rain stops.”

He said he didn’t think they had had stock losses.

Opawa flooding

In Christchurch, Stuart Payne, an Opawa resident of 35 years, told RNZ it was the second-worst flooding he’d seen in the area.

He said the response from council for the city’s metropolitan areas was delayed, despite flooding in various parts of the city, while most of the focus was currently on the Banks Peninsula.

Flooding in Opawa, Christchurch. Supplied / Stuart Payne

He also questioned why the region hadn’t been placed in a state of emergency. No declaration had been made by 10am on Tuesday.

“Maybe they’ve been caught out.”

Payne sent RNZ photos from his drive on Fifield Terrace, where surface flooding has covered the road.

“It’s like a massive lake.”

Flooding in Opawa, Christchurch. Supplied / Stuart Payne

His property was raised and wasn’t at risk of flooding, he said.

At 8.40am, Christchurch City Council published a list of city road closures on its website.

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Logan Paul’s ‘holy grail’ of Pokémon cards sells for $27.3 million

Source: Radio New Zealand

Five years ago, Logan Paul set a world record when he purchased a Pokémon card for US$5.275 million (NZ$8.74 million). It proved a sound investment – the influencer and wrestler sold that card for a jaw-dropping $16.492 million (NZ$27.3 million), with a diamond encrusted necklace thrown in.

The rare Pikachu Illustrator card –– one of just 39 created for a Pokémon illustration competition in the late 90s –– went under the hammer on Goldin auctions on Monday.

It is believed to have earned the WWE star more than NZ$13 million in profit after auction fees, a sale he called “absolutely insane”.

The auction had been running for 42 days but came to an end after hours of extended bidding Monday, with Paul saying “we may have tired someone out” during a YouTube live stream.

“Oh my gosh, this is crazy,” he added once the auction closed and confetti rained down.

Moments later, a Guinness World Records official appeared onscreen and confirmed Paul had sold the most expensive trading card ever at auction.

This time around the card was sold inside a custom necklace worn by Paul at WrestleMania 38 and with his promise to hand-deliver it to the winning bidder.

Pokémon is the world’s highest-grossing media franchise, surpassing even Disney and Star Wars. Cards have rocketed in value, outpacing sports cards and beating the S&P stock market by 3000 percent in the past 20 years, Goldin founder and CEO Ken Goldin told CNN in December after Logan confirmed he would be auctioning off the card.

“This is the most coveted trading card in the world,” he said.

Goldin said the Illustrator is considered “the holy grail of all Pokémon cards” and Paul’s card was what everybody wants because it’s virtually flawless – the only Illustrator card considered a Grade 10 card by authentication agency PSA.

As Monday’s bidding drew to a close, the price initially held at $11.41 million until a flurry of last-minute offers during an extended bidding period lasting several hours drove the final auction total to $27.33 million from 97 total bids.

Paul has a reputation for taking collectibles to extreme levels and has spent millions to secure some of the rarest items ever produced, including NFTs – unique, verifiable digital assets traded on the blockchain.

The WWE wrestling star bid farewell to the card on Saturday in an Instagram post, saying “goodbye my friend. What a privilege it’s been to be the owner of the greatest collectible in the world.”

The card is just one of 20 Illustrator cards graded by PSA.

Paul got his hands on the ultra-rare Grade 10 card by swapping a PSA Grade 9 Pikachu Illustrator card he previously owned – worth $2.11 – and $6.6 million in cash for it in July 2021.

Only eight of the Pikachu Illustrator cards have been awarded a PSA Grade 9 and Paul’s sale is the only PSA Grade 10, the highest and most desirable grade assigned by PSA.

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Oscar-winning actor Robert Duvall dead at 95

Source: Radio New Zealand

Robert Duvall, the Oscar-winning actor best known for The Godfather, Apocalypse Now and many other tough-guy roles over an acclaimed screen career that spanned six decades, has died. He was 95.

Duvall died “peacefully” at his home in Middleburg, Virginia on Sunday (US time), according to a statement sent by his public relations agency on behalf of his wife, Luciana.

Duvall memorably played the Corleone family consigliere, or key adviser, in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, earning his first of his seven Academy Award nominations for the 1972 film before reprising the role two years later in The Godfather Part II. Duvall noticeably skipped a long-delayed second sequel, The Godfather Part III, due to a pay dispute.

Robert Duvall in Apocalypse Now.

Photo12 via AFP

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Blues captain Dalton Papali’i to leave New Zealand rugby

Source: Radio New Zealand

Blues captain Dalton Papali’i. Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz

Blues captain Dalton Papali’i will leave New Zealand rugby at the end of the Super Rugby season to play in France.

The Blues have confirmed the 28-year-old will take up an opportunity with French Top 14 team Castres Olympique.

Papali’i, who made his Blues debut in 2017, said the decision was extremely tough to make, but the timing felt right at this stage of his career.

“This club means everything to me. I grew up dreaming of wearing the Blues jersey and representing my country. I’ve been lucky enough to live that dream for a long time,” Papali’i said.

All Blacks loose forward Dalton Papali’i in action against France, 2025. Brett Phibbs / www.photosport.nz

“The Blues gave me my chance, backed me, and helped me become the player and person I am. This was a really hard decision, but the opportunity in France is something that works well for where I’m at in my career with my young family.

“I’m fully committed to finishing my time here the right way. I love this club, the people, and our supporters, and I’ll keep giving everything I’ve got into the season ahead.”

Papali’i played 37 tests for the All Blacks after debuting in 2019, but played just once for the national side in 2025.

Papali’i (98 games) is on track to become a Blues centurion during Round 3’s match against the Brumbies in Canberra.

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