Department to reinstate controversial IT system despite doctors’ fears for patient safety
The patient record system, Acacia, was live for two months in major NT EDs last year before the government had to switch it off.
Two of the NT’s largest EDs are reinstating a digital patient record system that they switched off last year because of fears it was a patient safety risk.
The system, Acacia, was live in Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH) and Palmerston Regional Hospital (PRH) EDs for two months in 2024 before staff complaints prompted NT Health to roll back the system.
Doctors had claimed that Acacia would delete records during patient transfers, freeze and lock users out.
“It became almost impossible to run an ED,” AMA NT president Dr John Zorbas, an emergency physician, told AusDoc this month.
