Roy Heather: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Roy Heather: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:627;Page:21839] 
11.  
HEATHER ROY (ACT) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Is she satisfied with all aspects of the National Immunisation Register; if so why? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 In general yes. The full implementation of the National Immunisation Register is being rolled out and will be completed by December this year. Establishing such a register is complex and expensive but it is necessary if New Zealand is to improve its immunisation rates for preventable diseases. However problems in implementation do arise. For example last week there was a backlog of data because of a software issue but I have now been assured that that backlog has been cleared. 
Heather Roy 
: How can the Minister be satisfied when taxpayers have stumped up $7.5 million for a computer system that has over 150 bugs in it and in 1 month alone it failed to register or incorrectly recorded data on 11000 children who were immunised; is this not just another taxpayer-funded INCIS? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Certainly not and anybody who knows anything about computer systems and certainly new systems knows that there will be teething problems. I can assure this House however that each of the problems has been worked through including that of information that was incorrectly entered into the system. There will come a day when that member if she is still in the House will be very pleased that we are able to ensure that we have a rate of around 95 percent of New Zealanders being immunised—something we cannot do without an immunisation register. 
Steve Chadwick 
: What use is the National Immunisation Register? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: It has already been valuable for the current meningococcal B programme by giving district health boards information on how the programme is going. The same benefit will flow when the register is rolled out fully by the end of the year. And it will help us in our general childhood immunisation programme which is an area where we have not performed as well as we should have. 
Judith Collins 
: What assurance can the Minister give to this House and the people of New Zealand that the supplier will be made to fix the 150 registered known bugs in this system from Orion Systems International software? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The assurance I can give this House is that those issues are already being worked on. We do expect that there will be teething problems with a new immunisation register. Certainly we expected there would be some problems and they are being addressed. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Why when a condition for the provisional registration of the meningococcal B vaccine was that informed consent forms clearly identified concerns about the efficacy of the vaccine did that not happen? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Considerable information was provided to parents including information about the reaction to the vaccine as well as the efficacy of it. 
Judith Collins 
: How long has the Ministry of Health known about the problems with the Orion Systems International software for the National Immunisation Register and who will pay to have the 150 registered known bugs corrected? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: In any Government computer system if there is a problem in terms of data entry—and one of the problems was data entry between compatibility of general practitioners software and the programme—then it is picked up by the ministry. If there is a problem with those who provided the service then I am sure the ministry will be looking at what that service provides. I am told that the ministry first discovered the problems in March this year and has been working to fix them. 
Heather Roy 
: How can parents have any confidence in the immunisation process when it has been confirmed that this system failed to identify children who had missed doses and mistakenly identified others who were up to date and when the results were skewed and follow-up was delayed in the meningococcal vaccine campaign? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The public can be assured. I am advised that this problem occurred at Counties Manukau District Health Board Auckland District Health Board Waitemata District Health Board and Northland District Health Board and that subsequent software releases have fixed the problems. Parents can be assured that when problems are identified they are rectified. I challenge any member in this House even one with his or her own blog site not to find problems in it and then to have to fix them. 
Rodney Hide 
: Does the Minister agree with Counties Manukau District Health Board senior manager Nettie Knetsch who said: “You know the first couple of months are going to be ugly but we had hoped it wouldn’t be as ugly as it turned out to be.” and can she confirm firstly that the Ministry of Health has just approved $2 million of spending for a new information technology project for Capital and Coast District Health Board with the same supplier which has not fixed the bugs and secondly that there are still children missing from the register because of the failed INCIS database system she spent millions of dollars on; would the Minister please answer the question? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Much as the member would like to have one of his mini-scandals he tries to get into the media he does not have one here. This is a totally new programme. It was identified very early on that when a new register is developed there will be some problems. As long as those problems are addressed the whole system need not be thrown out which is certainly what has happened with this system. The member raised the fact that Capital and Coast District Health has spent money on a new information technology system. That money was not spent on software for the National Immunisation Register. Each board is entitled to purchase software for patient-data programmes or whatever else. They can purchase— 
Rodney Hide 
: They haven’t told you. They’re too scared to tell you. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The member is a blowhard. I have to put up with answering a question while he bellows and laughs. Does he really want an answer? 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Has the Minister finished? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Yes. 
Heather Roy 
: When did officials first alert the Minister to the failure of the National Immunisation Register database and does she deny that senior officials have been gagged from speaking about that failure simply because this is election year? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Absolutely not is the answer to the last part of that question. I have been aware of problems with the programme from the beginning of the year when they were raised. There have been no directions from me for senior officials to be gagged. I am sorry that the member has got it wrong yet again. 
Heather Roy 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I think the Minister was confused about the order of the two legs to that question. She said that the answer to the first leg was no but in fact it was the second. She was asked when officials first alerted her and I do not think that she addressed that part of the question. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The member may not have heard it but I did hear the Minister correct herself by saying she meant the second part of the question. The answer made sense on that. 
Sue Kedgley 
: I seek leave to table a letter to Dr Jane O’Hallahan director of the meningococcal vaccine strategy stipulating that informed consent forms be provided clearly identifying concerns about the efficacy of the vaccine. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Heather Roy 
: I seek leave of the House to table a newspaper article that states: “You know the first couple of months are going to be ugly but we had hoped it wouldn’t be as ugly as it turned out to be.” 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection.