Anonymous said...
David, not sure that this sort of "national enquirer" commentary really helps your status as a noted member of the e-health community.
Although I share your concerns, I simply don't believe that it is possible to divine the internal machinations of government by just looking at what is publicly released. There is SO much more happening behind the scenes that punters never get to see.
The tar-drip speed of progress can be mind-bending, but I am sure that the staff in government (including ALL of the people at DoHA and NEHTA who live and breathe this too) want to get it going. And they haven't stopped working yet. Nothing at COAG is final until the meeting is over.
Think more broadly for a moment: health identifiers are *really* close, national health reform is the dominant government story in the news right now, every health department is working at local e-health projects, PIP messaging vendors are making great progress, and the big defence e-health tender has just asked the open market to build a real implementation of almost all the technical elements outlined in the national e-health strategy.
There has never been a better set of circumstances to get the fire started. Don't let the smoke get in your eyes...
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 10:27:00 PM
----- End Comment.
Let us think what is being said here.
1. Anything useful that is happening is happening behind the scenes and no one other than the ‘in crowd’ can know.
2. The fact that the progress has been minimal for the last 5 years does not mean that great things are not close.
3. NEHTA and DoHA are toiling away on this and we should all trust that they will sort it out – and they don’t need anyone’s help.
4. You and the readers do not know what is going on and apparently nor should you.
5. Lie back, enjoy and trust us – and all will be well.
Now all this may be true, but the evidence we have from the press:
See here:
http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2010/04/and-this-lot-think-they-can-implement.html
and from Senate Estimates seems to suggest it is just not true.
If you accept this stuff you must also believe in fairies in my view. I must be a ‘doubting Thomas’ who wants evidence, and after all these years I am one who has totally lost trust in the sort of person who thinks it is useful to post this material – but is so scared of their bosses they can’t use their name.
I am really rather ashamed of a country where this secrecy would be seen as normal behaviour – but maybe things have changed now we have Mr Rudd and Ms Roxon in charge.
It is now a decade since serious plans were outlined for a National E-Health approach with Health Online and we have hardly moved in terms of practical national delivery – accepting that some projects are seemingly making headway – but at a really ‘tar-drip’ speed - other than the essentially private initiatives around GP computing and messaging supported by some quite limited funds.
I also find it really silly that the details of any NEHTA / DoHA proposal to COAG or following meetings are not being discussed and reviewed openly. Perfect wisdom these people do not have – trust me on this small point! Let us be also totally clear the IEHR and Personally Controlled EHR proposals are both very bad and ill considered ideas that should not be funded.
Manifest leadership, strategy, governance, co-ordination, support, planning and so on are just absent - and in this environment we all know little of value is ever achieved.
Everyone knows who I am. Anonymous who are you to tell us you know better and that we should just relax and enjoy?
David.
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