NT Health says "temporary" Acacia rollback at two hospitals

NT Health has confirmed that a new digital patient record system has been "temporarily" withdrawn from use in the emergency departments of Royal Darwin and Palmerston hospitals, following issues that emerged last month.

Royal Darwin Hospital
NT Government

The system, called Acacia, has been rolling out since 2017.

Delivery began in 2020 with a read-only patient record, with various modules delivered since.

During 2023, most of the delivery work focused on a module called “Acacia 1.0: Patient administration +”.

In January, the ABC reported that the system was suspended in Royal Darwin and Palmerston hospitals, citing clinicians’ concerns that Acacia slowed down their access to basic patient data.

NT Health has now confirmed the move, in a statement sent to iTnews.

"The use of Acacia in its current form at the Royal Darwin and Palmerston Hospital emergency department has presented significant obstacles for our clinicians in managing the volume and complexity of presentations as well as patient flow," NT Health said.

This, NT Health said, was exacerbated by staff shortages and “other operational pressures”.

To cope, the use of Acacia in those two hospitals is to be rolled back "temporarily".

“The final timing of the changeover [to Acacia] is being worked through carefully with senior clinicians and management within the hospitals but is expected to be in about two weeks’ time, with further adjustments and improvements being made over the coming months,” the statement said.

NT Health remains committed to the project, saying it will work with the US vendor Intersystems and staff to create a system “tailored to the busy emergency department of the Territory’s largest hospital”.

The department said the changes should also “assist” hospitals that previously received Acacia (Katherine Hospital and Gove District Hospital), “and better prepare us for implementation in Alice Springs Hospital and Tennant Creek Hospital later this year.”