State Government bring in consultants to fix Queensland Health IT bungle
Queensland Health has brought in experts to fix its problem-plagued purchasing system as hospital staff bypass their own warehouses because they’re out of stock.
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QUEENSLAND Health has been forced to bring in consultants to fix its troubled new purchasing system amid revelations problems are expected to persist for at least another five weeks.
It comes as hospital staff are being forced to bypass their own warehouses because they’re out of stock, told instead make their own credit card orders directly with businesses.
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Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday insisted the system, S/4HANA, was “a system that is working”, as Health Minister Steven Miles revealed more than 70 calls had been made on the first day of a new hotline for vendors chasing down late payment.
The news comes with confirmation consultants from IT specialists Cosol have been undertaking hospital and warehouse visits to discuss problems with staff.
It’s understood Mr Miles personally ordered in the “logistics experts” to work with Queensland Health on improving the problem-plagued system.
“Logistics experts have already examined our processes and undertaken observations at our distribution centres and their processes and our hospital to make sure we’re doing everything we can to further improve how stocks are ordered, dispatched and delivered,” Queensland Health said in a statement.
It also confirmed last night it would need to keep experts now hand-holding staff through orders for at least another five weeks.
“For the first three months following a go-live, a heightened level of support is in place to ensure staff are supported and can access help when they need it,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, a hospital staff member told The Courier-Mail problems with S/4HANA’s approval processes were still resulting in delays because staff thought orders were going through when they were actually stalled within the system.
Warehouses were also filling incomplete orders either because of problems with the ordering process or because they were out of stock.
It means staff are still having to bypass S/4HANA and manually make credit card orders directly with vendors, even stockpiling supplies to create “mini warehouses” in hospitals so they do not keep running out of important supplies.
“The only way to get what you need is to abandon the system,” the source said.
“We can’t see an end to it at this point.”
Asked about the specific problems raised by staff, Queensland Health said S/4HANA was “functioning within expected parameters”.
“Almost $1 billion worth of invoices have been paid since S/4HANA’s introduction in August and hospital care has remained world class, safe and free,” it said.
Mr Miles yesterday thanked staff “for their dedication during this transition”.
“Queensland Health acknowledges this is a big change,” he said.
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