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This 0800 number connects those who have received negative test results with the Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS). Callers can speak to an operator if the wrong information has been sent to them.
ACT Party leader David Seymour says the fact that ARPHS has such messages is “alarming” and shows that the Health Ministry knows there is a problem.
“It is alarming that the government is sending their test results to the wrong person; worse still, they do it so frequently that they have a system to report it,” he said.
“There have been a lot of people waiting a long time for their results, and you have to wonder if it’s because they were sent to the wrong people.
“We know that the Ministry of Health knew about this problem because they had a system to report their own mistakes, that’s how bad it was.”
A spokesperson for the Northern Region DHBs told Newshub that he was aware of the McCarthy daughter’s case and has now forwarded the test results to the contact numbers registered for the intended recipients.
They said a process has been put in place to protect patient information and privacy, so text messages contain only limited personal information and a number to call if the text messages are sent to the wrong person.
“The Northern Region has processed hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 test results and occasionally people who underwent a COVID-19 test gave us the wrong number by accident or it was incorrectly recorded,” the spokesperson explained.
When a bug is reported to the phone number provided in the text message, they said the team works quickly to:
- Register that an incorrect number has been registered.
- Send an alert to the GP and / or testing center in the community where the test was performed.
- Contact the person who was tested to inform them of the negative test result.
But Auckland residents who received text messages intended for others say the botch points to Hipkins, who manages both the education and health portfolios, has too much on his plate.
“I mean, hi? Isn’t there someone else in the Labor Party who can defend one of those portfolios?” said an anonymous text recipient.
McCarthy said Hipkins appears “overworked and overworked,” and believes Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s decision to burden him with such massive portfolios shows his “incompetence.”
