ACT digital health record pharmacy inventory system 'barely a minimum product'

A dedicated project board for the inventory expressed "extreme frustration" with an element of the pharmacy inventory management system, documents have revealed.

There was also a significant amount of time being spent on basic operations for the system and staff were dissatisfied with the functionality of the product.

The system's flaws were outlined in a series of reports into the digital health record which was released under freedom of information.

"This remains barely a minimum viable product with significant amount of resource time being dedicated to basic operations," one report said.

The release showed reports into the system from February to June this year, in each report the system was classified as "red" meaning it was not under control for each month.

"[The board] continues to express extreme frustration," the June report said. "The system remains barely a minimum viable product.

"Calvary director of pharmacy reports patient impacts on timely access to medications and staff dissatisfaction with the functionality of the product."

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The June report said there were fixes that were set to be applied but a testing schedule had yet to be provided.

The Canberra Times asked ACT Health whether there had been any improvements to the system since this report but the directorate did not respond by deadline.

Opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley, who requested the documents, hit out at the government over the project.

"This is yet another example of a project that is failing under this Labor-Greens government and Canberrans have every right to know if their taxes are being wasted," she said.

The digital health record, which was implemented across the ACT public health system last year, has come under fire from the opposition after performance data, such as wait times, has been unable to be reported.

Ms Castley said a project board from the system lacked confidence in the capacity for improvements to be made.

"The project board recommended expanding the PIMS' scope to include the delivery and integration of an electronic controlled drugs register, used for the recording of dispensed and received controlled drugs," she said.

"However, as of June the project's schedule was immaterial. There was insufficient budget to implement [the register], additional sources of funds were near exhausted and the [the register] funding issue had an 'extreme' rating."

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