Minister of Health Tony Ryall has called for urgent confirmation that systems have been put in place at district health boards throughout the country to prevent fraud.
His call followed the multimillion-dollar fraud convictions on Friday of a former Otago District Health Board employee and his friend in what is believed to be the largest employee fraud case to come before a New Zealand court.
Former board chief information officer Michael Swann and his friend and business associate Kerry Harford stole $16.9 million from the board during a six-year period.
"I am determined that this should be not allowed to happen again," Mr Ryall said.
"This was an outrageous fraud, which has denied surgery and care to thousands of New Zealanders.
"I want an assurance from the Ministry of Health that systems have since been put in place to prevent this happening again."
Mr Ryall said it was clear there had been systems failures at the Otago District Health Board.
How could Swann drive his Lamborghini to the district health board's car park, "park it next to the district health board Corollas" and nobody ask any questions, Mr Ryall asked.
Another question was why external audits did not pick up the fraud, he said.
He wanted assurances boards throughout the country had learned from what happened in Otago and taken steps to prevent it happening elsewhere.
"I think it is of concern to all people, not just people in Otago, that such a fraud was perpetrated and that is why New Zealanders would want an assurance that it can't happen again.
"This is incredibly serious and a whole lot of questions are still to be answered."
Mr Ryall said he spoke to the director-general of health at the weekend and expected answers in the next few days.
