I was having a quiet morning just minding my own business and planning what I would write on for the coming week when a short e-mail appeared in my inbox.
The e-mail referred to the following comment that was made in the blog last week.
The blog is found here:
http://aushealthit.blogspot.com/2009/09/why-does-this-sort-of-silliness-keep.html
Here is the comment.
“Anonymous said...
David,
The Medications team at NEHTA has developed an excellent technical model for ETP, consulting extensively as much as they could with eRx and Medisecure, et al. Since the task of creating the technical documents is my responsibility, I will confirm that NEHTA's engagement with this sector has included people like Hatrix etc.
Thursday, September 03, 2009 12:17:00 PM “
Note I am informed that ETP stands for Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions.
I must say I was grateful for the comment as it provided at least some re-assurance that some industry engagement was being undertaken.
On the basis of the phrase “The Medications team at NEHTA has developed an excellent technical model for ETP” I also wondered out loud why we all could not have a bit of a peek at the model to see what we thought of it since it clearly has been developed and written up?
The gist of the e-mail was as follows.
- Silliness is continuing apace at NEHTA.
- What has happened is that the powers that be have launched a Spanish style Inquisition to find out who the naughty employee was as this was a totally unauthorised public utterance.
- Threats of suspension and dismissal have been made.
- NEHTA is very unhappy with the leaks of its confidential information and is planning to make a major fuss to stamp out such behaviour.
Recognising that both the original post and this e-mail could be hoaxes, although the e-mail does come from a legitimate and valid e-mail address, on the basis that both are real I think the following comments are in order.
First, my feeling about this is that if this is the way the organisation is still behaving close to 12 months after acquiring a new CEO then the recommendations of the Deloittes National E-Health Strategy that NEHTA essentially needs to be killed off and reborn in a more reasonable and useful form are proving to be increasingly valid.
We all need to be clear that NEHTA is meant to be a public organisation doing things for the public good. Behaviour of this sort does absolutely no one any good at all.
Second, I feel very sorry for any staff who are being beaten up for doing the perfectly reasonable thing of letting the broader e-Health community know, via the blog, that they thought they had done a reasonable job of developing the ETP model and also thought they had consulted widely enough.
Third, it is also worth pointing out that the writer was probably trying to respond to what was seen as some negative comments and had noted that I specifically ask people to let me and readers know when I have got ‘the wrong end of the pineapple’!
Regular readers will know I try hard for openness and see it as a virtue that NEHTA (DoHA and government in general) should value a great deal more than they do!
Again, if this is all a hoax I am sorry for any distress or career damage caused.
David.
It all seems perfectly reasonable to me. If there is a guy at NEHTA charged with the “task of creating the technical documents” what’s the problem? So, he said all was well, he was doing his job. Good on him, thanks for letting us know.
ReplyDeleteHow can that be construed as anything other than being a perfectly reasonable statement. No “Confidentiality” has been infringed. The companies named (eRx, MediSecure and Hatrix) are the companies one would expect to be involved in advising NEHTA. You’d want to be worried if they were not involved!!! By the sound of things there are some others involved too - let us call them the et al group. They may not want anyone to know who they are and we don’t. Why not? It may be because the information is highly confidential or because they like to hide their light under a bushel or because they are not yet quite up to the mark of those mentioned. We don’t know and do we care? Not really, why should we?
What we do know is that NEHTA is doing something with industry. That can only be construed as goodness. Can’t it? After so many many years of not doing so it’s bloody well about time. So what is all the fuss about. Why has NEHTA’s management got its knickers in a knot? Surely it’s not because they might be feeling a bit sensitive, vulnerable or inadequate to the task ahead of them? Because, if that’s the case they should move on and be replaced. The only other reason is that they might have some super secret project underway! For want of another name let’s call it “TFBP - The Fat Boy Project”. Well, if they do, we don’t know about it and the innocent remarks from the (we must assume but cannot be too certain) “guy at NEHTA charged with the “task of creating the technical documents”” is just that - innocent remarks, nothing more.
At law we would judge such remarks under the standards of the reasonable man test. Now I don’t know about all your readers but I do know that I am a very reasonable person and by those standards I have to say that the contentious remark that seems to have caused so much concern within NEHTA’s ranks was quite reasonable and I suspect, but do not know, that it was made by a reasonable man. If that be so then his defence is that of ‘the reasonable man” - all power to him
"The only other reason is that they might have some super secret project underway! For want of another name let’s call it “TFBP - The Fat Boy Project”"
ReplyDeleteLets hope you are wrong on this. If this was Canada, or England, or the US, any government funded project in e-health would be transparently disclosed prior to, during and after it was done. Because its public money being spent. Because otherwise it is unlikely that appropriate public consultation has occurred on a system likely to affect everyone. Because there is no reasonable reason to be secret, except for insecurity and paranoia.
If this were true, and I hope it is not, then I pray that there are good souls out there who can use the anonymity of this blog to spill the beans ("and stop this silliness" as our blogMaster would say).
Many agree with you (Tuesday, September 08, 2009 12:41:00 PM)and the only way to stop the silliness as our "blog master" refers to it is for NEHTA to communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate, communicate, and to stop being secret, being secret, being secret, being secret, being secret.
ReplyDeleteThis blogspot has been asking for that to happen for a very long time, a very long time, a very long time, a very long time. Will it ever happen, ever happen, ever happen, ever happen, ever happen, ever happen? Most of us hope so, hope so, hope so, hope so, indeed we do, we do, we do, we do, we do.
Hoax...hmmm...I don't think this is out of the realms of possibility. My understanding is that some of the companies mentioned are NOT in discussions with NEHTA, much to their dismay. HATRIX doesn't exist anymore by the way, having been purchased by iSoft some months ago.
ReplyDeleteTime for FOI anyone?
ReplyDeleteFOI on what? There is nothing to do an FOI on.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to imagine tha what the commentator above has siad could be true ie. "that some of the companies mentioned are NOT in discussion with NEHTA". If they are not in discussion with some of them who else could they be in discussion with?
The best way to get some answers you can trust is to contact the Engagament team at NEHTA. That should put an end to this destructive speculation.
ReplyDeleteThe En-gaga-ment team at NEHTA, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI must ask the previous poster to refrain from such waggish comments, as they tend to bring out the worst in jaded observers of Auntie Jack NEHTA.