Health New Zealand has axed hundreds of old websites in a major consolidation effort, claiming savings of more than $21 million.
The national health agency inherited 344 websites when it replaced the country's 20 district health boards in 2022. These included condition-specific sites like "death docs" and an Mpox toolkit, district health board websites, and appointment booking platforms.
"Many legacy websites were poorly maintained, posed technical and security risks, were no longer fit for purpose" or did not meet government standards, Health New Zealand told the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists.
The cleanup began in July 2024, two years after the centralised agency was established. Acting chief IT officer Darren Douglass said the organisation was "making significant savings by bringing together hundreds of legacy and local websites into a smaller number of secure, accessible national channels."
By March's end, Health New Zealand estimates it will have saved $21.4 million in one-off costs by avoiding platform upgrades, plus ongoing savings from reduced hosting and support costs, less duplication and improved staff productivity.
"These benefits are expected to continue to accrue as remaining sites are consolidated," Douglass said.
The agency spent $150,000 on external consultants for development services, with other work completed in-house.
Websites being retired include My Covid Record, Starship Children's Hospital's site, public health campaign pages and workforce data portals. Some were partnerships with third parties, others were internal-only or already decommissioned.
"Decisions to consolidate or decommission sites were informed by user research and behavioural data, including direct user testing and insights from tools such as Google Analytics and HotJar," Douglass said.
The main Health New Zealand website is now at www.healthnz.govt.nz. The agency told doctors it didn't think this would be confused with the Ministry of Health website.
However, the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists raised concerns about the similarity between the two URLs.
"The public deserves some clear communication on this," the association said on Monday. "There's irony in the way Health NZ says it's concerned about 'public confusion' over retaining the Te Whatu Ora web address, while all its email addresses remain @tewhatuora.govt.nz.
"It's also a concern that Health NZ doesn't seem to have any plan to tell it's main stakeholders - patients - about these changes, when these websites are where people go to find information on care they need."
Health New Zealand gives one to six weeks' notice before closing websites, including on-site notifications and redirects to ensure bookmarks and external links continue working.