CALHN bosses accused of wasting money over ‘bespoke’ Royal Adelaide Hospital QR code that breaks COVID-19 legal directions

Bosses at the RAH are accused of wasting taxpayers’ money with a “bespoke” identification tracking system that police warned broke COVID-19 rules.

Health bosses at the state’s main hospital have been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money on an identification-tracking system police have warned is not compliant with COVID-19 rules.

The Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) introduced the unauthorised QR code across the Royal Adelaide Hospital a week before an official government statewide system was launched last Tuesday.

No other SA Health facility has launched such a system.

Under state law, only the government’s “mySA GOV” app is allowed, unless special permission is granted by the State Co-ordinator, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens.

Mr Stevens was only told of the RAH’s QR codes after inquiries by The Advertiser.

An SA Police spokesman said it had “been established … the RAH is not displaying the approved government QR code at this time”.

“(SA Police) is working with SA Health and the RAH to correct the situation,” the spokesman said.

“As has been (our) policy throughout the … pandemic, education is provided in the first instance.

“It is our understanding the RAH is in the process – if not already completed – of changing from their bespoke system to become compliant with the government QR code system.

“Police are pleased.”

The Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN) introduced the unauthorised QR code across the Royal Adelaide Hospital a week before an official government statewide system was launched last Tuesday.

The doctors’ union and Labor on Tuesday night accused hospital bosses of wasting taxpayers’ money.

“We are concerned that there is additional expenditure by the RAH in the purchase of this system when clearly we are told the (government) app is performing the same function,” said Bernadette Mulholland, from the SA Salaried Medical Officers Association.

Labor’s treasury spokesman Stephen Mullighan said the blunder raised “serious questions” for CALHN.

“Businesses all over the state are all being told to adopt the government-run QR system, so why is our largest public hospital spending taxpayer’s funds on their own separate system?” he said.

A CALHN spokeswoman refused to provide costs on Tuesday, citing commercial in confidence.

She said a pilot in the COVID-19 hospital informed “any future roll out across other CALHN sites”.

“In response to the Parafield Cluster, hospital-wide implementation was moved up to 23 November 2020, a week before the announcement of the mySAGOV app,” she said.

On Tuesday, Mr Stevens authorised an expansion of the government’s QR codes to retail venues and supermarkets from Monday.

He urged universal use including for firms to clearly display readers and patrons to help contact tracing.

“This is in everybody’s best interests,” he said.

Chief public health officer, Professor Nicola Spurrier, said it was everyone’s responsibility.

“At the end of the day it’s actually up to every South Australian to use their mobile phone, and to make sure that you check in, when you’re going into a venue,” she said

“So it’s fine that the businesses are all complying with it, but actually every South Australian also has a requirement to do that check in.”

Figures from the Department of Premier and Cabinet, which manages the encrypted data, show 3.3m total check-ins on 747,000 phones at 25,000 locations over the past week.

Originally published as CALHN bosses accused of wasting money over ‘bespoke’ Royal Adelaide Hospital QR code that breaks COVID-19 legal directions