A computer error in SA has seen some patients receive over 10 times the necessary amount of medication.

The SA Health prescription system Sunrise EMR has been duplicating the last digit of dosage quantities. 

“It's added another digit and replicated the last digit, so if you were to have 17 milligrams, it would have prescribed 177 milligrams,” SA Health CEO Chris McGowan told said this week.

“We're doing a full review of course, and I'm not aware of any negative outcomes for any patients but that will be examined over the coming days and that will be made public.”

Facilities including the Royal Adelaide, Queen Elizabeth and Noarlunga hospitals, the Flinders Medical Centre, and hospitals in Whyalla and Mount Gambier were affected. 

It is unclear how many patients received medication overdoses or for how long the problem went unnoticed.

“We're not sure of that … clearly that's part of the review,” he said.

“It was a generic issue in the prescribing software. It's a patch relating to upgrading to Microsoft 10. That's the operating hypothesis at least, but that's being checked and that'll all be part of the review.

“The continuing roll-out of Sunrise has been incredibly successful but from time to time … there are faults.”

Mr McGowan said the issue has been “rectified”.

The state opposition wants a "full independent investigation" into the error.

A 2018 review found the Sunrise EMR needed “significant improvement to meet clinician expectations”.