Mr David Gonski AC has been appointed as the first independent chair of the National E-Health Transition Authority.
More details are available here.
http://www.nehta.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=335&Itemid=144
Just why a lawyer and listed company director, and Chancellor of UNSW, is a good choice for this role totally eludes me. I wish him luck but can’t for the life of me see how someone with no apparent record in health or technology is the right person for this role.
The number of directorships he holds also makes one wonder how much time and focus NEHTA can expect.
I do not subscribe to the theory that any good manager can manage anything! Indeed, I see part of the decay of our Health System as being related to the systematic exclusion of health expertise from the management of health service entities.
If Mr Gonski’s role is to try and get the badly flawed NEHTA IEHR proposal through COAG, and funded, then he needs to know – right up front – he has been handed a poison chalice in my view.
The only upside is that it seems a well constituted Reference Forum (with real sector expertise and wide representation) is about to be announced by NEHTA. If this forum can have the influence it should there just may be hope yet. This is, of course, only three years to late!
Life is always lively in e-Health!
David.
4 comments:
Well said Sir.
David Gonski is a very nice gentleman and well qualified to boot.
He may well be able to cut through the crap that the current Board has deceived itself into believing and allowed itself to live with for so long.
His major problems will be believing that his fellow Board members (the CEOs of the jurisdictions) are any the wiser today than the last 5 years. To obviate against this and ensure he can be razor sharp in dealing with the enormity and complexity of the issues which still confront NEHTA today (irrespective of who is appointed to the CEOs position) he will need access to some independent competent politically astute healthICT expertise.
Hopefully he is astute enough and across enough of the history of the last decade of healthICT debacles to understand that any NEHTA IEHR COAG proposal should be deferred for at least 12 months until NEHTA has been tightened up, downsized, refocused and stablised from being the basket case it is today.
According to the Fin Review NEHTA has confirmed it will submit its business case to COAG by October - so there. it is unlikely the new chairman could do anything about it anyway - his job is to Chair the Board and take advice from his CEO (Acting).
Yes
I am being interviewed for a position at NEHTA shortly. I suspect not a good move. Life is too short. Reading the gobblygook of the position description doesn't fill me with anything other than concern for yet another project that is already in the grip of people with NFI(no idea). Wish me luck.
We will know if there is hope:
a. if the existing NeHTA proposal goes to COAG, there is little.
b. if there is a radical departure from the existing approach, there is some.
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