Raungaiti Marae Health Clinic says it has had to resort to court action to get its data back. File photo Photo: 123RF
A small marae-based GP clinic is going to the High Court to try to get its data back from a medical IT company.
Raungaiti Marae Health Clinic has tried for more than two years to get a full clone of its patient data after finishing a contract with Health Support Systems for a practice management system.
Rawiri McKree Jansen, one of the clinic's GPs, said the clinic was small and "barely" made a profit, but had several patients with complex needs.
It needed to be able to put its full patient data into its new practice management IT system to be able to seek funding and support for them, he said.
The clinic had taken a contract out with Health Support Systems to run Indici software, one of the main practice management systems used in New Zealand.
But when it found the system was not a good fit, it ended the contract and had expected to get its data back within a couple of weeks in a way that it could be put into a new system, Jansen said.
But that had not happened and earlier this month, the trustees filed a claim in the High Court.
"This particular arrangement has been far too long, we're frustrated. Enough's enough," McKree Jansen said.
"It's an entirely reasonable expectation that the data can be packaged up safely, reliably, accurately, handed back to the clinic so it can put it back into a PMS [patient management system]," he said.
The IT company was owned by Pinnacle Group which also ran a network of North Island GP clinics serving more than 400,000 people.
Chief executive Justin Butcher said it took its contractual obligations very seriously and had been working with the software provider and the marae trust to find a resolution.
While he could not comment on the specifics because of the legal case, he understood the frustrations, he said.
The "data landscape" could be complex and clear standards were needed for secure data handling practices, he said.
"We understand the importance of this and are actively involved in efforts to develop a national standard, which would ultimately benefit all stakeholders," Butcher said.
Pinnacle Health was the subject of a major IT hack in 2022.
