Hunter New England LHD’s rollout of the single digital patient record remains a work in progress, with four other districts waiting to see how it goes.
The Single Digital Patient Record Implementation Authority has taken some steps to acknowledge there is still work to be done to get Hunter New England Local Health District ready for its SDPR rollout.
After sustained pressure from HSD over the past week (here, here, here and here) the SDPRIA responded on Sunday morning with the following statement from CEO Dr Teresa Anderson:
“Extensive work is underway to prepare for the SDPR rollout in Hunter New England Local Health District.
“Staff training across HNELHD for SDPR is one of the largest coordinated learning programs ever delivered across NSW Health. More than 1900 classes have been completed so far with more than 21,000 staff completing the training.
“Configuration of the system is now complete and significant infrastructure upgrades are being made to support sites across the region, including network and Wi-Fi upgrades.
“This work is laying the critical foundations required to support this transformation, ensuring staff are equipped, sites are ready, and the district is prepared for go-live.
“NSW Health understands the benefits and importance of continuity of care for consumers and will undertake an initial pilot this year involving GPs and Aboriginal Medical Service patients who share care with NSW Health and Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network (Justice Health NSW).
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- ‘We’re listening’: DoHDA axes showering and incontinence co-payments policy
- What if you fail your annual AI medical license driving test?
- Pharmacists eye S8 prescribing rights in AHPRA shake-up
- The mental health system may be making us sicker
- Leak shows HNELHD not ready for Epic rollout
“The safety and privacy of our patients is our highest priority, and the NSW public health system has a comprehensive program in place to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber security issues across all our systems.”
Missing from the response is a definitive timeline for HNELHD’s go-live. As late as November 2025, the launch was scheduled for March 2026. The latest update on the SDPRIA website now lists it as May 2026. However in an earlier statement to HSD, Dr Anderson said only that the LHDs would go live “toward the middle of the year”.
Clearly, infrastructure upgrades are still in progress.
Late last week an internal document was leaked to HSD detailing challenges facing the LHD’s rollout of the Epic product, including:
- infrastructure upgrades, eg., WIFI;
- complex coordination with external partners;
- ensuring equitable rollout despite infrastructure variability;
- GPs will not be fully integrated into the system;
- cybersecurity concerns.
Four other LHDs remain listed for the second tranche of SDPR rollouts, due in “late 2026”, according to the Implementation Authority: Northern NSW, Mid North Coast, Northern Sydney and Central Coast.
Presumably their final timeline to go-live will very much depend on how things go in Hunter New England.
