The SDPR Implementation Authority might discover that we can handle the truth and might think better of it if it tells it to us.
One day I shall send off an email full of questions to a government agency and an hour before my deadline a reply will magically appear in my inbox and it will be a comprehensive answering of each question, disarming in its honesty.
This is my dream, readers. Pipe though it may be.
It doesn’t even have to be on the record. On background would be fine, as long as it is honest and actually answers the question.
This week we spent a lot of time on the single digital patient record roll-out in NSW.
A very good thing, by the way, worthy of celebration, as indeed folk at Justice Health Forensic Mental Health Network and the NSW Health Pathology John Hunter hospital lab rightfully did.
But the fact remains, the start of the rollout has not gone as advertised.
Hunter New England LHD has, from day one, been the big-ticket marquee go-live candidate. As late as November 2025 HNE’s go-live was listed as March 2026. Officially, according to the SDPR Implementation Authority’s website, that is now listed as May 2026.
But in a statement from Dr Teresa Anderson to HSD earlier this week, that go-live is now slated for “toward the middle of the year”. Sounds like June or July to me.
All we wanted to know was, why hasn’t the rollout happened across Hunter New England LHD as scheduled?
Of course, as it happens, we know the answer to that, but getting someone official to admit to it, is a whole other ball of wax.
As we reported yesterday, HSD has sighted documentation of an update given – in the second week of March – about HNE’s SDPR rollout, which proves that the LHD is just not ready to support it.
Some quotes from that document (emphases are our own):
“A significant number of staff still require training, and new staff will continue to need onboarding. Some staff were incorrectly assigned multiple roles, resulting in unnecessary training requirements – this is being corrected.”
In the context of simulation exercises: “These simulations require external support (implementation authority and system vendor), making setup complex and time-consuming. Once built, simulations will be scaled across the district, tailored to different hospital contexts.”
“The system build is not fully complete – ongoing configuration continues (eg medications).”
“… infrastructure upgrades, ie WIFI, are ongoing across sites.”
“The challenges we currently face are: … complex coordination with external partners; ensuring equitable rollout despite infrastructure variability …”
“GPs will not be fully integrated into the system. Some may get limited access (eg Care Link), but communication (letters, discharge summaries) must continue.”
“Access via personal devices is technically possible but delayed due to cybersecurity concerns.”
In other words, HNE LHD is not ready to go live on the Epic SDPR, for a variety of infrastructural, and judging by the comments about the SDPRIA and Epic, coordination reasons.
After our story on Tuesday, detailing Dr Anderson’s response to our first set of questions, we fired off another email to the SDPRIA, again asking why HNE LHD’s rollout had been delayed.
Here is the second response – in total – from Dr Anderson:
“The implementation of the Single Digital Patient Record (SDPR) is the largest transformation in Australian healthcare history. Hunter New England Local Health District remains in the First Tranche of implementation of the SDPR for NSW Health.”
Related
At 8.30am yesterday, Friday, I sent a much more specific list of questions to the SDPRIA, based on the document that was leaked to us.
At the time of writing this, no response had been received.
No one expects a rollout of this scale to be perfect, because delays happen. Big, complex systems take time to come together.
What should not happen is a situation where the internal view and the public line are so obviously at odds.
If the system isn’t ready, say so. Everyone already knows, as the documents show.
Perhaps one day that disarmingly honest email will come. It will arrive before deadline, answer the questions asked, and reflect the reality everyone involved already understands.
Until then, we will continue to rely on documents like the one leaked to us this week to tell the story that official responses will not.
Also in today’s edition:
- Dementia death gap drives push for ‘Hem’s Law’
- ‘Totally gutted’: Cohealth patients brace for another GP services shock
- St Vinnie’s group CDO quits for university role
- Two exits and a suitor
- Aged care funding model ‘failing complex residents’, providers warn
- Who is Victoria’s new health minister?
- We’re building systems to make healthcare better. Who’s looking after the people doing that?