Tuesday 5 May 2009

LABOR INCOMPETENCE: HOSPITALS LEFT IN THE DARK AFTER BLACKOUT CRASHES COMPUTER SYSTEM AND BACKUP FAILS

At least 100 hospitals and health facilities across NSW were left without vital computerised patient record systems for up to 36 hours after a power failure at a health data room was compounded when the backup supply also failed, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.

It has been revealed a blackout at the Health Support Services statewide data room on Saturday morning caused the computerised patient records system to go down, and backup systems also failed. The failure affected three entire Area Health Services: Greater Western, Greater Southern and Sydney West.

“The failure of backup systems to continue to give hospitals access to vital computerised patient records represents a serious failure by the Rees Labor Government,” Mrs Skinner said.

“Staff report hospitals were thrown into chaos when they lost access to the computerised patient records service,” she said.

“Hospitals affected not only lost access to patient records, some lost some patient records altogether, had to use whiteboards to keep track of patients and couldn’t access x-rays unless they physically went to the x-ray department for a film copy.

“After 14 years, Labor has failed to secure the power supply to vital computerised patient medical records and is too incompetent to ensure back up systems are working properly.

“Instead of focusing on spin, Health Minister John Della Bosca should explain why the patient records system lost power, why backup systems also failed, and whether patient safety was compromised during the outage.

“So far the inexperienced and incompetent Nathan Rees and his Labor Government have failed to tell staff or patients what went wrong and why.

“If John Della Bosca can’t guarantee the power supply to vital hospital computer systems, how does he expect to fix the problems in the health system,” Mrs Skinner said.