Quote Of The Year

Timeless Quotes - Sadly The Late Paul Shetler - "Its not Your Health Record it's a Government Record Of Your Health Information"

or

H. L. Mencken - "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

Thursday, August 15, 2013

The NEHTA Clinical Lead Resignations Get Murkier - Is NEHTA In For Major Change Or The Chop?

There is a very recent e-mail from the PR Person at the Department of Health that has the following lines:

“Going forward, the Department of Health and Ageing is taking the lead in the consultation with medical peak bodies and industry sectors, such as the new ICT Industry Consultative Forum bringing together more than 120 industry organisations next week and the PCEHR Peak Bodies Workshop next month.”

While I am no genius of decoding ‘DoHA speak’ this seems to be a desperate attempt to grab back at least some influence on the e-Health Agenda from the rest of us who now clearly recognise DoHA is clueless and NEHTA has gone past its use by date and that a whole new approach is needed if victory of any sort is to be snatched from the jaws of defeat over the next few years.

As the election looms they know they have no time and there must be lots of crisis meetings and so on happening at DoHA and NEHTA as they desperately try to insulate themselves against the transformative effects of an almost certain new Ministerial broom on the activities of these useless and fundamentally unconsultative bureaucrats. I doubt they will succeed and I see big cuts coming!

For them I suspect this might just be the ‘end of times’.

David.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

DOHA is bringing together more than 120 industry organizations !!!!

Hello. Desperate bureaucrats trying to appear relevant about something they do not understand. The one thing they are very good at doing in eHealth is creating chaos. Masters of the art.

What bullshit do they think they can spiel forth with in front of 120+ organizations that will have any credibility or relevance whatsoever. Absolutely none - zilch.

Anonymous said...

I would like to know who is on the invite list of 120... any helpers on this?

Anonymous said...

Yep just send out some clinical leads to sort....


Oh yeah you can't....they all left the building!


It's ok, just send some more bureaucrats they are experts in nothing but at least they sound polite!

Anonymous said...

Maybe they should bring back the Tiger Teams. Mirth and laughter everywhere.

No need to be concerned Jane Halton has it all under control.

Bernard Robertson-Dunn said...

IMHO, you don't need more people all telling their different sides of the problem.

You need a few people (maybe only one person) who really understand how to engage those many stakeholders appropriately, who know about problem analysis and the development of solution options and who can provide leadership.

Management is different from leadership. I see lots of the former and none of the latter.

Anonymous said...

Here comes the arrogant "we know best" consultation model.

They may as well run infomercials to the audience than these bureaucrat run bull horn events. Be a darn site cheaper.

Dr Ian Colclough said...

Another talkfest of 120+ industry organisations will not help solve the problem.

I agree with Bernard – we don't need more people all telling their different sides of the problem. We need a few people (maybe only one person) who really understand how to engage those many stakeholders appropriately, who know about problem analysis and the development of solution options and who can provide leadership.

Anonymous said...

The Toothless Tiger Teams?

Anonymous said...

Someone who doesn't have a hidden agenda should walk around and talk to all those hard-working people who have been directed to do things that caused them to scratch their heads in disbelief.

Then that same someone should follow the dirt trail right back up to find out who directed/approved. Along the way they'll find many who will always just do as they're told, but they'll also identify common links in influencers who talk the talk but don't walk the walk.

Send them packing, clear the decks.

Articulate the vision and mission (purpose), articulate the underpinning values and governance succinctly to raise transparency - so there can be no doubt in anyone's mind, no misinterpretation, no misrepresentation - so future directives that don't align, don't make sense, or are just plain bad are seen for what they are, and can be transparently questioned.

Install a single person capable of leading and accepting responsibility for delivering that vision and mission, ensure planning, roles and responsibilities are all watertight so everyone knows exactly what's expected of them by when, then let everyone get on with it.

Australia has a wealth of knowledgeable, talented, capable problem-solvers who are also ethically principled, and they're needed here - keep them or attract them.

Anonymous said...

8/16/2013 04:23:00 PM .... you must be naive if you think a single person could control that bunch on a project of such complexity.

Hey - Mr David Gonski has been the highly paid Chair of NEHTA now for some years. He didn't do any good, in fact he just let it all happen and go from bad to worse.

Ian Reineke started off ok but quickly lost his way; Peter Flemming, the banker, was out of his depth from the start, even so he loved his job as he so often said.

As for putting it under Jane Halton's control - forget it - DOHA has been the root cause of at least 50% of NEHTA's problems.

Bernard Robertson-Dunn said...

re "you must be naive if you think a single person could control that bunch on a project of such complexity."

I don't think anyone is suggesting what is needed is control.

What I am saying is that what is needed is leadership. Leadership is not about control, or management or administration or bureaucracy. Leadership comes from one person who understands what needs to be done and who shows others how to do it.

IMHO, there are too many people who think that all you have to do is follow the correct procedure, manage resources, get ticks in boxes and make the right noises and all will work out fine.

That approach only works if you do the same thing over and over again. You can learn from your mistakes and eventually get it right.

Something innovative and game-changing, like improving health outcomes through the use of IT, does not fall into that category. You only have one chance to get it right. You don't have the option of repeating what you've just made a mess of. The people doing it have changed, the IT has changed and health professionals and their patients will have become disillusioned.

IMHO, Australia just blew its chance of a decade.

Anonymous said...

Australia blew a chance of the decade

AGREE

And that is the sad part.

Dr Ian Colclough said...

It took 5 years and around $1.5 billion for DOHA & NEHTA to dig their very deep hole. They cannot fill it and they cannot climb out of it. Some of us have said it before in various forums more than once. At the risk of sounding like a cracked record let's hear it again - new leadership, new minds, new skills, different people are needed if the problem is to have the slightest chance of being fixed. The right people are available but I hesitate to mention who they are for very good reasons which should be obvious.