This Is Really Just Profound Nonsense. We Are Living In Something Close to an E-Health Police State!

I had a call from an old mate from the industry this morning.

In the call he told me he was having a good time reading the Version 11 of the NEHTA PCEHR Concept of Operations (ConOps) as well as parts of the NEHTA Contract with DoHA so, I presume, he could figure out just who was planning to do what with whom in this the round of PCEHR tenders.

I suggested that now we were at Version 11 it must now be perfect but he was just a mite sceptical of that!

What was really amazing, he found, was that the PCEHR timetables in the DataPak were essentially unchanged but that the way the tender was structured any delay risk had been transferred from NEHTA and DoHA to those tendering.

Astonishingly, apparently part of the proposed deal is that tenderers have to plan based on the assumption the HI Service and NASH will be delivered when needed and that the response cannot mitigate risks associated with these events not actually happening.

What this means, by my interpretation, is that either you sign up to un-realistic timelines or don’t bid. This is a classic commercial ‘rock and hard place’ situation.

You would be not surprised to know that when I suggested I might be sent a copy and I was told that was not possible as the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) was pretty draconian.

As an example of how dire the NDA is, is that both his lap top and my computer logs would be subject to search and review of logs should I be found to have a copy (I really wonder if that can actually be enforced? - feel free to send me a copy and we can see!)

Even more alarming was that when I suggested he might give me a copy of the NDA I was told that was also protected in a rather recursive way and was as restricted as the ConOps documentation.

All I can say is WTF. This is a document (the ConOps) describing something that is allegedly being developed for the good of our health and yet the whole process is being surrounded by military grade security. Just why would that be? There is no valid reason I can see!

My view is that this is utterly out of control! My feeling is that frankly NEHTA has become a threat to good and open government in our country with this sort of paranoid and anti-democratic behaviour.

As other sites often say ‘What do you think’?

David.