Health IT and the Australian Budget

Tomorrow is the one financial day for the year in Australia when the Commonwealth announces its budget for the next year.

What chance any joy for the proponents of e-Health in Australia?

I must say I am pessimistic. After what looked very much like a re-branding of old HealthConnect money into new NEHTA funding a few months back – and with precious little (not surprisingly) to show for that investment as yet, I think the Government will think they have done enough for now.

The usual run of leaks, typical of the pre-budget period, do not appear to have an obvious mention – but that is not to say there won’t be any new funds – given that such funding is unlikely to be “leak worthy” I would suggest.

At the risk of seeming to be repetitive, it seems to me that without a compelling business case for e-health investment, as well as some political will just nothing will happen. In this regard we can hope the NEHTA initiative on Benefits Realisation, announced a month or two ago, might just have some impact.

The obvious worry is that NEHTA recommending dramatically increased spending might be seen as having a ‘conflict of interest’ in seeking to feather its own nest. I am firmly of the belief, to be credible, such a business case needs to have been undertaken by expert, independent outsiders and not done in-house where it can so easily be ignored and left un-actioned.

If there was to be funding – where should it go?

I would like to see a real proper e-Health Business case developed along with a real implementation plan - $3-5M for one year and then sell the benefits and plan to the Commonwealth to become much more pro-active. This is vital and overdue by at least half a decade.

I also want a Certification Commission for Health IT type entity to get GP systems up to snuff - and then to get a real Health IT network going in - that can grow organically like is intended in the US. Start small and provable and get some runs on the board. ($10-20M p.a. for 4 years or so). I would also like to, as the CCHIT is doing, see the scope widen to cover Hospital Computing and so on.

Those two specific initiatives and continuation of other NEHTA initiatives might just move us forward a little.

We shall see tomorrow what the budget brings.

David.