The final offer for the COAG Health Reform Plan was released yesterday.
It was entitled:
A National Health And Hospitals Network: Further Investments In Australia’s HealthYou can find the document here:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/nhhn-report-2
On page 92 of the document we find the sole mention of e-Health
Next Steps
The Government will continue to make further investments in the National Health and Hospitals Network, in both the priority areas discussed in this document, and in additional important areas such as mental health, dental care and preventive health.
In mental health, while some progress has been made in recent years in providing more services to people with common conditions such as depression and anxiety, the system is not currently meeting the needs of certain groups of people with mental illness. In particular, young people with or at risk of mental illness are not accessing the timely care they need.
In dental health, many Australians experience poor access to dental care – often because there are not enough dentists and dental professionals. Current estimates project there will be a shortfall of 2.3 million dental services in 2020. People who are socially and economically disadvantaged are much more likely to have poor dental health. The Government is committed to expanding access to dental care in Australia, for example through the establishment of the Medicare Teen Dental Plan.
The Government recognises there is much more to be done to improve access to mental health services and dental care.
Obesity, tobacco and alcohol misuse are the key common risk factors for a range of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Since 2007 the Commonwealth Government has made unprecedented investments in prevention, committing $872 million through COAG for preventive health programs to be rolled out in schools, workplaces and communities to help individuals modify their lifestyles to reduce the risk of chronic diseases. Nonetheless, the Government recognises there is scope for targeted further action to build on these important measures.
In addition, e-Health reforms will work to provide additional foundations to support improvements to the quality and efficiency of care across the National Health and Hospitals Network. The Government will be making further announcements on these reforms over the coming weeks and months.
Can you believe it? Weeks and months as Dr Oliver Frank, who sent me the document exclaimed! How long do we have to wait given we have known this is an issue since even Minister Abbott admitted he was struggling with the whole area in 2006-7!
Both sides of politics seem to be just utterly clueless and stupid.
What is going on is now utterly clear.
The work on E-Health done by NEHTA and DoHA is so hopeless that the Government was not even prepared to put it to COAG – for fear of being laughed out of the room!
I hope they can find someone who has a clue to help them and soon – or the overall quality of any Health Reform is doomed in my view.
The credibility of Mr Rudd and Ms Roxon in Health is basically shot as far as I am concerned. It is frankly terrifying that these people and their highly paid bureaucrats are in charge of what now looks like rendering terrible harm to a health system which, while stressed. does not need an axe taken to it - without real confidence some good will result.
Has someone told them there is actually a quite reasonable National E-Health Strategy they could get started with?
David.
There are some broad and far reaching changes primarily focusing on
ReplyDelete›› record investments in public hospitals;
›› training a record number of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals;
›› making smarter use of our workforce;
›› reforming incentives for doctors to go to rural areas;
›› building GP Super Clinics across the country; and
›› making record investments in prevention.
E-Health is not on the radar. Partly a failure of Nehta and industry pundits to formulate a worthwhile plan no doubt.
Leaves the entrenched vendors continue in isolation and unfortunately does nothing to enhance interoperability, provide guidance or planning. What a wasted oportunity.
David, not sure that this sort of "national enquirer" commentary really helps your status as a noted member of the e-health community.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I share your concerns, I simply don't believe that it is possible to divine the internal machinations of government by just looking at what is publicly released. There is SO much more happening behind the scenes that punters never get to see.
The tar-drip speed of progress can be mind-bending, but I am sure that the staff in government (including ALL of the people at DoHA and NEHTA who live and breathe this too) want to get it going. And they haven't stopped working yet. Nothing at COAG is final until the meeting is over.
Think more broadly for a moment: health identifiers are *really* close, national health reform is the dominant government story in the news right now, every health department is working at local e-health projects, PIP messaging vendors are making great progress, and the big defence e-health tender has just asked the open market to build a real implementation of almost all the technical elements outlined in the national e-health strategy.
There has never been a better set of circumstances to get the fire started. Don't let the smoke get in your eyes...
And you Anon of April 13,2010 10:27:00 would have vastly more credibility if you used your name!
ReplyDeleteIf there is Sooooo much happening why has it not happened by now when all the other stuff is funded to the tune of billions?
David.