Acacia reintroduction hailed as ‘major achievement’ by NT Health but doctors ask what comes next

NT Health has completed the rollout of its troubled Acacia patient record system in Territory hospitals, but AMA NT warn it still falls short of its original promises. Read more.

Acacia was rolled out in Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston EDs. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The re-implementation of a controversial health patient record system in Top End emergency departments has been celebrated as a big moment by NT Health as the system is now running in every Territory hospital.

Eight years on from its inception, the system which has been afflicted with serious concerns and overspending has finally reached a full rollout.

But the Australian Medical Association argue it still has far to go to deliver on its initial promised purpose.

The chief executive of NT Health, Chris Hosking, thanked “dedicated” staff from the health department and the Department of Corporate and Digital Development for their hard work on the project.

NT Health chief executive, Chris Hosking. Picture: Lottie Hood

“The re-implementation of Acacia into Royal Darwin Hospital and Palmerston Regional Hospital emergency departments on 13 November marked a major achievement for NT Health,” he said.

“Acacia is now operational across all Territory hospitals, thanks to the hard work and combined efforts of NT Health and the Department of Corporate and Digital Development (DCDD).

“NT Health clinical staff, DCDD and the system vendor Intersystems have worked closely together to deliver and rollout a fit-for-purpose system that meets the dynamic and unique needs of a Northern Territory health service.

Mr Hosking detailed Acacia’s “progressive” rollout across the NT from its first go live at Katherine Hospital in July, 2022, to its successful implementation in Alice Springs and Tennant Creek this year.

In order to help with the transition, he said ongoing support is still being offered to staff at the hospitals with the system

“Acacia is for the benefit of all NT Health staff and, most importantly, for the benefit of Territorians.

“Acacia has been designed to improve patient and client outcomes and enhance continuity of care, by providing essential clinical information at the point of care.”

The health patient record system is not yet a one-stop shop for staff.

During a patient’s journey in hospitals, their information is processed and stored across Acacia, several legacy systems and even paper-based systems.

Mr Hosking said the future stages of Acacia will be carried out over the next two years when these older legacy systems would be retired or integrated and the teams would continue to “refine and build” Acacia to ensure it is fit for purpose.

AMA NT: ‘This is not yet the product that was promised and funded’

Australian Medical Association NT president, Dr John Zorbas, said there have been significant improvements made to the system since it was last implemented and then rolled back from Darwin and Palmerston EDs.

“It’s not the same as last time where it was switched off which is a welcome change,” he said.

“It’s still got its quirks and we’re working through those.

Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) Emergency Department. Picture: Lottie Hood

“The bigger question though is this is not the product that was promised back in 2016.

“This is not the product that was funded. There are still huge gaps in terms of what it can deliver compared to what it was supposed to deliver and we can’t just stop now with part one of Acacia.

“We need to talk about what comes next and what are we going to do to finish the job.”

As with any transition, Dr Zorbas said the workload for staff always increases as people get used to a new way of working.

If the system is not further developed, he argued it will leave staff in this transition phase with the extra work but not necessarily seeing the benefit which could lead to staff burnout.

“In an already cash-strapped environment it’s difficult to see where the funding will come from to complete what needs to be done because this is not just an optional program software.

“Much like our hospital buildings, it has an end-of-life and these legacy systems, it was decided to replace back in 2016 for good reason, 10 years later we’re still using a large number of them.

“They will fall over eventually we can only patch them for so long.”

Originally published as Acacia reintroduction hailed as ‘major achievement’ by NT Health but doctors ask what comes next