The Ministry of Health is being restructured, creating a new Data and Digital directorate.

Director general of health Ashley Boomfield revealed the finalised structure in a document dated 1 October, saying the changes are “designed to ensure that we can deliver the collective leadership required and support us in our engagement with the health sector and other stakeholders”.

The new executive leadership team is made up of 13 roles, one of which is the deputy director general data and digital. The chief technology and digital services officer role held by Ann-Marie Cavanagh has been disestablished and the Ministry’s ICT function will now be part of the corporates services directorate.

The document explaining the restructure says the new role “will be responsible for ensuring that our data collections and digital technology support the health system to deliver better services and health outcomes.

“The role will retain oversight of current data and digital functions as well as the national collections.”

The new directorate is expected to have 126 staff out of a total staff number of 1165.

A chief information officer will act as a functional lead for ICT, data and digital, with oversight and responsibility for standards, processes and delivery against objectives.

A consultation process on the restructure ran from 20 August–7 September and 108 submissions were received.

The document says that national collections and reporting, emerging health technologies and the lead data steward were originally proposed to be part of the Health System Improvement and Innovation directorate. Following feedback on where functions sit best within the new structure, these will now sit under the Data and Digital directorate.

Feedback on the restructure also questioned why the CIO role was not part of the ICT function in corporate services.

Bloomfield’s response is that the CIO has a system focus.

“The CIO is concerned with ICT and digital enabled transformation across the health system to deliver better services to New Zealanders,” the document says.

The new structure takes effect as of Monday 15 October.

 

Find out more about changes to the Ministry’s second-tier structure

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Sourced from eHealthNews - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth