The man's GP believed he was getting counselling for his depression.
Photo: 123RF
It has put a business case to Cabinet for millions of dollars to set up New Zealand's first national health information platform.
The country's hospital IT systems are so outdated, fragmented and insecure they need $2.3 billion spent on them over the next decade, according to official assessments.
Colin McKenzie - who helps run Epsom health diagnostics-handling firm Sysmex, which gets people's lab test results through to whichever clinicians need to see them - grapples with it daily and said it was a struggle.
"If I'm from Hamilton and I get transferred to Auckland for specialist care, they can't see any of my information," he said.