When the ACT public health system’s Digital Health Record rolled out last year (read more), the ACT Government described it as “an exciting initiative” that would “transform the way health care is provided”. But the Canberra Liberals believe the $327 million information system is plagued with problems, and have asked the ACT Auditor-General to conduct a performance audit of it.

“Reliable health data for external reporting by Canberra Health Services, to support the community, decision makers and Commonwealth bodies, is still not available after nine months,” Leanne Castley MLA, Shadow Health Minister, said.

“Embarrassingly, 12 pages of the recent ACT Budget contain no strategic and accountability indicator data for 2022-23.  For example, there is no data for:

• the percentage of emergency department and elective surgery patients treated within clinically recommended time frames
• rating of the quality of care provided to patients
• the incidence of golden staph infections
• the rate of staff absences due to occupational violence

“Even before DHR went live in October 2022, ACT Health’s Digital Solutions Division (DSD) warned there was high risk of inability to meet national reporting submissions, which would in turn impact reputation and funding.

“In Ministerial Statements in March and May, the Health Minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, talked about the ‘challenges to external reporting’.  When this Minister talks about challenges, one should read ‘fiasco’.

“The ACT Government allocated $2.2 billion for Canberra’s public health system, but taxpayers don’t have data on our public hospital performance. This is not acceptable.”

Ms Castley said that a previous FOI Request revealed detailed monthly reports by DSD and to the Minister outlining implementation issues with DHR.  The last was from February when the DHR program reported an overall Red status (not under control), with 35 open risks, including 10 with a High rating. (Read more.)

Concerns raised include the availability and quality of data, particularly around outpatient reporting, data for national reporting and submissions, Patient Administration System related issues, and specialist Medicare billing.

“This comes on top of a staff survey or ‘health check’ of DSD, which is implementing DHR, where all negative discussion appears to have been heavily redacted,” Ms Castley said. (Read more.)