Page 2870 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 August 2013

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It affected the overall network, and some clinical systems shut down for a period of hours. This involved EDIS, RiskPac, the ICU database, CRIS medical records, the pharmacy system and some of the alarm system. As happens from time to time, the hospital manages very well with the backup systems it has in place, so all areas immediately reverted to those systems. It did not affect the treatment of patients and patients within the emergency department, which relies on EDIS, continued to be seen whilst using the paper system. By 3.45 most of those systems were back up and running, and by 7.15 all business systems were restored with the exception of the car park duress system. The hospital had in place measures for this type of event to ensure that patients continued to receive the care they needed.

MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mrs Jones.

MRS JONES: Minister, what impact did this problem have on the Canberra Hospital and other parts of ACT Health? In particular, was there any impact at all on patients?

MS GALLAGHER: It had more impact on staff, because staff had to revert to the backup systems. If there is anywhere in government that does have backup systems to backup systems, to manage potential issues like this, the hospital does it exceptionally well. Staff are well trained when situations occur—and they do occur from time to time, particularly with some of the construction work that is occurring around the hospital. Staff responded appropriately. Any impact on patients was minimal and was managed very well and professionally by the hospital and ACT Health.

MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Doszpot.

MR DOSZPOT: Minister, were any clinical systems unavailable or offline during the outage?

MS GALLAGHER: I think I answered that in my first comprehensive answer, Mr Doszpot. I spoke of EDIS, RiskPac, the ICU database, CRIS medical records, the pharmacy system and some of the alarms.

MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Porter.

MS PORTER: Minister, how important are the backup systems for ACT Health?

MS GALLAGHER: The backup systems are essential and they are part of detailed planning and testing that is done within the Health Directorate. They have a very good series of plans in place, including escalation plans which showed that they worked, in the sense that the Director-General of ACT Health was arriving at my office at the time this occurred and was briefed on the incident prior to the meeting with me, at which point I was briefed on it as well.

Environment—strategic assessments

MR GENTLEMAN: My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development. Minister, last week you made an announcement about the


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