❓ Ms. Mettam questions the Minister for Health regarding a widespread IT outage in WA hospitals, inquiring about its cause and potential clinical incidents, while the Minister attributes the outage to a power issue, assures backup procedures were followed, and reports no adverse events.
AnsweredQoN 750Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
HOSPITALS AND HEALTH CAMPUSES — DIGITAL OUTAGES
750. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to reports that WA hospitals
were forced to revert to paper overnight after a widespread IT meltdown that
impacted emergency departments across the state.
(1) How was this
able to occur under the minister's watch for the second time this year,
given taxpayers paid $200 million for the electronic medical record and critical
health ICT infrastructure programs as part of this year's budget?
(2) Were there
any notifications of clinical incidents across the WA health system that had a severity
assessment code rating over the period hospitals were affected by the IT
incident?
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : The
interjections were not helpful. I was about to advise the member that that was
a very lengthy question. Maybe in the future I will not give you a supplementary
if you ignore the length of the first question.
750. Ms L. METTAM to the Minister for Health:
I refer to reports that WA hospitals
were forced to revert to paper overnight after a widespread IT meltdown that
impacted emergency departments across the state.
(1) How was this
able to occur under the minister's watch for the second time this year,
given taxpayers paid $200 million for the electronic medical record and critical
health ICT infrastructure programs as part of this year's budget?
(2) Were there
any notifications of clinical incidents across the WA health system that had a severity
assessment code rating over the period hospitals were affected by the IT
incident?
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : The
interjections were not helpful. I was about to advise the member that that was
a very lengthy question. Maybe in the future I will not give you a supplementary
if you ignore the length of the first question.
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I am advised that there was a power outage last
night that affected the use of the data systems. The State Health
Incident Coordination Centre was stood up at 9.21 pm to support the response.
Services have now been restored. We are advised that backup procedures were
followed. There are well-documented and practised downtime procedures that
clinicians have put in place. This is why we have the State Health Operations
Centre in one of the most resilient buildings in the country, alongside Western
Australia Police Force. The centre will
operate even when other sites are disrupted, providing the eyes and ears for
the system 24/7 to keep patients safe and our sites operating as
smoothly as possible. I know this caused disruption and I thank the staff for
their very hard work in continuing to deliver services throughout that time.
There were no reported adverse events. I can confirm that it was neither a cyber
attack nor an external power supply attack. Investigations are ongoing into the
cause.
night that affected the use of the data systems. The State Health
Incident Coordination Centre was stood up at 9.21 pm to support the response.
Services have now been restored. We are advised that backup procedures were
followed. There are well-documented and practised downtime procedures that
clinicians have put in place. This is why we have the State Health Operations
Centre in one of the most resilient buildings in the country, alongside Western
Australia Police Force. The centre will
operate even when other sites are disrupted, providing the eyes and ears for
the system 24/7 to keep patients safe and our sites operating as
smoothly as possible. I know this caused disruption and I thank the staff for
their very hard work in continuing to deliver services throughout that time.
There were no reported adverse events. I can confirm that it was neither a cyber
attack nor an external power supply attack. Investigations are ongoing into the
cause.
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