Half of Health’s Acacia IT system shelved pending new funding despite risk of ‘catastrophic failure’ of systems
Half of the controversial $320 million NT Health Acacia patient record IT system is being shelved pe
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There is only one valid sentence required: HEALTH in N. T. no longer without risk to life and limb, accountability and transparency.
1. What are the number of individual independent contractors on ABNs hired on this Northern Territory Government Acacia Digital Patient Record System project and why is this information not reported in the 2024 -2025 Northern Territory Public Service State of the Service report of the NT Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment ?
2. Does the hiring of all these individual independent contractors on ABNs hired on this Northern Territory Government project comply with sections 15AA and 357 of the Fair Work Act (Cth) of the Commonwealth Parliament as explained in the multi-factorial approaches in the Fair Work Commission decisions ?
[2025] FWC 3069 Matthew Bull v Rmbl Bxng Bondi Pty Ltd (22 October 2025)
[2025] FWC 2327 An Applicant v The Trustee For New Hopes Trust (11 August 2025)
Lucio why don’t you just email Gunner and ask him, he should have pulled the plug on this whole shambles long ago.
This project started in 2020, its now 2026 and the wheels continue to fall off.
A RDH surgeon wrote on my paper notes that I needed knee replacement in 2021, I was not informed and Royal Darwin Hospital lost this record.
In 2025, it was now determined that both knees need replacement. Was scheduled then told no in 2026.
This is not only a systematic catastrophe but humans play a part in its continued failure.
In 2025 it was determined at RDH that I required surgery on my left arm, it has taken over 12 months for the hospital to determine this but only after the surgeon used ageist language to exclude surgery.
In January RDH scheduled surgery, then a day later cancelled it, once again no follow up, no complaints follow up. A GP suggested that the condition can become permanent – Royal Darwin Hospital is causing harm to those who need a functioning public hospital.
The project started in 2020 and Gunner stepped down in 2022. As much as he was unlikeable, I don’t get your point.
ACACIA is a DISASTER that has fed a lot of NT Public Servants wages!
Who are the senior managers of Acacia?
Who hired these senior managers?
What relevant qualifications do these senior managers have?
Are the Senior Managers of Acacia the children and relatives of the previous Senior Managers who implemented the previous disastrous clunky Medical systems, developed by a company that has never developed a medical system before and never developed any other medical system for anyone else ever since?
In the context of the previous crappy medical systems at Health, I understand that the 350+ other hospitals in Australia all bought off the shelf systems and did not build a custom made medical system from scratch like a former NT Health Chief Information Officer decided to do.
Are the kids of this former NT Health Chief Information Officer managing the disastrous Acacia now?
A system of this size that may have had numerous clip-ons added over the years takes experienced business analysts and experienced system architects to be engaged throughout the project while project managers ensure delivery. These consultants will be external resources and the business (hospital stakeholders) must ensure they provide almost full time business representatives thought project definition and implementation.
A project of this size (or any project) must not start implementation until well designed and signed off by all stakeholders.
Having worked previously as a senior business analyst in other countries and jurisdictions it is not obvious that projects in the NT Government follow best practice, I would love to be proven wrong.
RIP: Shaun Joyce, no professional employee from another Australian state/Territory can understand the viciousness & sabotage caused by working for the NT Public Service (NTPS). As a result Darwin’s population will not grow as employment is transient as you die or escape.
I take it, in true NT Public Service style….nobody gets the sack right?
Nobody in Senior management at Serpro (Police) or at Acacia (Health) even blinks a eyeball when their incompetence is described on the front page of the NT Government funded news! It has to be pretty bad to get past the NTG Paid Advertising strings to be published in the NT News.
Dave Tolner, fiscally prudent Treasurer in 2014 had the good sense to kill off the $70 million “broken” asset management system when it went from 18 million to 72 million with no end in sight! The Government was informed that it would cost another $120 million and five years to fix the system which led to it being killed off.
The current reincarnation of the CLP cannot kill the Territory bankrupting Ship lift or get Two vital IT systems implemented despite those two IT systems being implemented all over the world!!!