Minister Snelling stands condemned for wasting $40 million on an IT project blowout at a time when hospitals cannot meet the demand for emergency treatment for patients.
Minister Snelling apologised today for the latest example of ‘queuing’ or ‘ramping’ in hospitals when he apologised for queuing in the corridors at the Royal Adelaide Hospital on Tuesday night.
“However, we now know Minister Snelling and SA Health have wasted more than $40 million on a massive blowout of the Oracle IT project,” said Shadow Health Minister Rob Lucas.
“This project was meant to cost $23 million. The actual project cost has now blown out to $47.5 million and the $15 million that was going to be saved has not been achieved.
“This means the total hit to the SA Health budget of the project is now about $63 million, or a blowout of $40 million.
“South Australian patients and their families will be rightly very angry at the warped priorities of the Weatherill Government when they see financial mismanagement across the board leading to reduced services to patients.
“Sadly for South Australian families, it appears that the hospital system is not coping with demand at the moment.
“Of great concern is the fact that experts predict that the peak in demand will not occur until later this winter.
“If we are experiencing problems now, how bad will the situation be in August/September this year?”