Investing $133m for ‘critical’ health IT in WA
The Western Australian Government recently announced a A$3.2 billion ($2.1 billion) investment in health in its 2024-2025 budget.
It includes A$200 million ($133 million) for EMR and critical IT infrastructure. Another A$28 million ($19 million) will be used to continue supporting the WA Virtual Emergency Department.
According to a government press release, this year’s “record” budget is expected to “strengthen hospital capacity, support the health workforce and improve access to care.” patient care”.
Added prescriber approval management to SafeScript NSW
eHealth NSW recently added a new function to SafeScript NSW that simplifies the controlled drug prescription approval process.
Released in November, the approval management system simplifies prescribers’ applications for approval to prescribe and supply certain Schedule 8 drugs. It reduces paperwork time and allows they manage and track their approval process in real time.
Two years after SafeScript was rolled out statewide, it is now used by more than 29,000 medical practitioners to access patients’ prescription and dispensing histories of tracked medications.
NSW Health RIS-PACS is now operating normally
After four years, NSW Health’s medical imaging system, the Radiology Information System and Picture Archiving & Communications System (RIS-PACS), is now fully operational across hospitals in state.
The RIS-PACS program ended earlier this year after helping migrate historical images across 86 hospitals in a statewide platform since 2020.
eHealth NSW said in a statement: “This program reflects one of the most significant digital changes for NSW Health to date, resulting in standardization of radiology practices across the system. Australia’s largest public health system.
