NSW government 'sitting on health report'

The NSW government has come under attack for failing to release a report into problems with the computer system that runs emergency departments throughout the state.

The report by consultants Deloitte was obtained by Fairfax Media under freedom-of-information laws. It says the computer system, known as FirstNet, continually makes hospital staff spend excessive time on data entry and is chronically underfunded.

Staff are not adequately taught how to use the software and it does not provide an acceptable record of care received, according to the report.

"With some exceptions, FirstNet reporting is inadequate for effective governance of operations," the report states.

No instances of harm to patients were found.

The NSW Opposition said the government had received the independent report in August 2011 but had sat on their hands since then.

"The health minister (Jillian Skinner) has had a report warning her that patient care is at risk following problems with the ... computer system for six months and has done nothing about it," the opposition spokesman for health, Dr Andrew McDonald, said in a statement on Sunday.

"In the third quarter of last year, five per cent of emergency patients triaged as having potentially life threatening conditions waited nearly two and a half hours for treatment — despite the recommended timeframe being 30 minutes," he said.

"This very serious report detailed concerns from medical staff that delays with the computer system meant they were spending less time with patients — yet Jillian Skinner failed to act."

The comments come after a University of Sydney review in March last year found the computer system — which cost more than $100 million — was crippled by design flaws and was compromising patient care.

It found the system allowed treatment details and test results to be assigned inadvertently to the wrong patient and automatically cancelled pathology and radiology requests if the person was transferred from the emergency department without checking whether these were still needed.

• Bookmark this page
• Share this article
  •  
  • facebook
  • slashdot
  • digg
  • Reddit
  • stumbleupon
  • linkedin
  • twitter
• Got more on this story? Email TechWorld
• Follow TechWorld on twitter

• Share
  Share this article

  •  google+
  • facebookfacebook
  • slashdotslashdot
  • diggdigg
  • RedditReddit
  • stumbleuponstumbleupon
  • linkedinlinkedin
  • twittertwitter
• print
• email
• Bookmark