New Royal Adelaide Hospital floors not strong enough to handle weight of paper patient records

THE floors of the new $2 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital wards are not strong enough to take the weight of all paper patient records, documents confirm.

26.2.2016.Grey clouds hang over the new RAH. pic tait schmaal.

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THE floors of the new $2 billion Royal Adelaide Hospital wards are not strong enough to take the weight of all paper patient records, documents confirm.

SA Health will have to store the majority of paper records off-site.

Opposition health spokesman Stephen Wade told a parliamentary committee in February that clinicians had warned him the new hospital floors may not hold the weight of all paper records.

Today, the Opposition released an internal health document which warns that the “maximum load across the (ward) floor is not built to withstand concentrated numbers of records”.

“There is no provision for such a large number of paper based records on site at the new RAH,” the document states.

“Those medical records ... Just be store in an off site facility.”

It confirms an Advertiser report a month ago that included fears the floors could not hold the weight of the paper records.

Grey clouds hang over the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, which is nearing completion. Pic. Tait Schmaal

Health Minister Jack Snelling said paper records would need to be stored for about six months until the new electronic patient administration system (EPAS) was ready to be used at the new RAH.

Mr Snelling said the storage site would have to be “secure and weatherproof” but would not say exactly where it would be.

“We need to work out what records need to be kept at the new RAH,” he said, adding “not every single” paper record was kept on-site at the current RAH.

“No IT system is going to be perfect from day one.

“Records that are needed by the clinicians will be stored on-site.”