The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has announced another $4.8 million of funding to ensure the “highly successful” surgical simulation training programme NetworkZ (previously known as MORSim) is rolled out to all District Health Boards (DHBs) across New Zealand by 2021.

ACC said the funding boost follows the release of the second edition of its treatment injury data publication, covering the five years up to 30 June 2017. The publication covers three more injury areas: equipment failures, all surgical mesh-related injuries, and treatment omission – where injury was caused by a failure to provide treatment, or a failure to do so in a timely manner.

NetworkZ uses surgical mannequins to replicate operating theatre situations designed to help surgical teams develop better teamwork to improve patient safety.

An initial funding of $4.8 million will see 10 DHBs across the country using NetworkZ by the middle of this year. Rolling it out to all DHBs will put New Zealand at the forefront of healthcare training, ACC chief customer office Mike Tully said.

“There is strong evidence of the benefits of good team training in the healthcare sector, but up to now it is not something that’s being systematically implemented at a national level,” Tully said. “We’re delighted to be supporting such an important initiative.”

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