Health Minister Jack Snelling tips likely increase in cost of troubled EPAS computer system, which is critical to operation of new RAH

HEALTH Minister Jack Snelling has tipped a likely cost increase to a troubled computer system critical to the operation of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, as the Opposition claim it has already blown out.

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HEALTH Minister Jack Snelling has forecast a likely increase in the cost of a troubled computer system critical to the operation of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The State Government is currently rolling out the Enterprise Patient Administration System to hospitals across the state, which allows clinicians to electronically access records.

The new RAH has been built without space for old-fashioned paper records.

The Opposition today released a document obtained under Freedom of Information which it said showed the cost of the bug-ridden system had blown out to $465 million.

The briefing note, from an SA Health official to Mr Snelling’s office, outlined changes which may be required to ensure smooth operation of the system and possible cost implications.

It is dated March 17 last year, and outlines several options for government. The document also assumed the hospital would open in April this year, a date which has been missed due to construction delays at the new RAH which have given IT teams more time to prepare.

It said direct introduction of the EPAS system into the new RAH by April 2016 was expected to increase the cost of the system to $465 million, above the current budget of $422 million.

The EPAS system is critical to operations of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital on North Tce. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Mr Snelling said the program currently remained within the $422 million budget but he had been upfront with the public for a long time about the prospect more money would be needed.

“I’ve always been pretty clear that it is going to cost extra money,” he said.

“To date, we haven’t had to get any extra money beyond the $422 million that’s been approved.

“It’s a bit hard to know whether we will need to. A lot of the extra cost so far has just been because it’s taking longer than we anticipated, so we’ve had to keep running old legacy systems.

“If we are able to accelerate the rollout, we would expect that (cost) to be less.”

Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade said the briefing document exposed gross mismanagement of the project and called for Mr Snelling to be sacked as minister.

“EPAS is now at least $245 million over budget and years behind schedule,” Mr Wade said.

“Jack Snelling cannot keep his job when he is shutting the Repat to save money while he burns

hundreds of millions of dollars on a patient record system that’s operational in only three hospitals.”