The following popped up this morning.
Rush to deliver e-health eating $1m a day
- by: Karen Dearne
- From: The Australian
- January 17, 2012
THE Gillard government is "burning $1 million a day" to deliver its personally controlled electronic health record system on time and is sending coding work to India in the process.
The National E-Health Transition Authority head of PCEHR implementation, Andrew Howard, said the Accenture consortium was "on track" to deliver a key part of the program's national infrastructure by February 1.
That should set the scene for delivery of an operational system by the July 1 deadline, he said.
"Over the Christmas break, Accenture has been extremely busy building out software," Mr Howard told a vendors web-based seminar. "We're building some of the code offshore in India, and the Indians didn't take a break over the Christmas period. So I'm pleased to say that Accenture is on track to deploy release 1a to us early next month."
Mr Howard said NEHTA was working on some "incredibly tight" timelines. "Everyone says that about every project, but the reality here is we are literally burning around $1m a day at the moment pushing this program through . . . getting things out the door," he said.
Lots more here:
I wonder where the comments on how quality and safety for patients are?
That they are ‘burning’ money like this does not sound much like due care to me.
Just hopeless and really revealing a lack of understanding about what is being attempted - albeit very badly - here!
David.
Some people don't know what "literally" means
ReplyDeleteAndrew Howard said "We're building some of the code offshore in India"
ReplyDeleteThe last time I heard that line in regards to a humongous eHealth development which was under pressure and falling behind was from iSoft which outsourced its Lorenzo product to India for development.
Does anyone know the status quo of that development today?
not only is quality and patient safety missing, so is privacy and security. Wonder how they're getting the code back here - carrier pigeon?
ReplyDeleteThis looks like the latest news on iSoft's Lorenzo now owned by CSC
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8942087/NHS-computer-farce-to-cost-another-2bn.html
Wonder how they're getting the code back here? NBN :)
ReplyDeleteWhen are they going to sack this Mr Howard obviously there is a job waiting for him in India
ReplyDeleteI notice on the vendor portal the security policy has not achieved the December deadline and looks like the lack of other released specifications means that the Accenture lead group will now own Australian eHealth for a longtime to come.
Well done on selling us out to profiteers Mr Howard.
Anonymous Jan 16, 2012 09:28PM
ReplyDelete"Well done on selling us out to profiteers Mr Howard."
Where do you think Mr Howard worked before NEHTA and DHS VIC?
Profiteering "Accenture" of course, which will ensure Mr Howard has funded a well feathered nest during his sabbatical and soirée into the tax-payer funded public and QANGO sector, with a certain return to and continued loyalty back at home base Accenture, no doubt swiftly followed by some well pensioned bureaucrats seeking some private sector gravy for "public services" rendered!
The ehealth treasury has been and continues to be well and truly raided with zero accountability for millions of tax-payer funds laundered through the BIG "consulting" services coffers, and precious little, if any, ehealth outcomes achieved or value created for the substantially and continuously pilfered tax-payer, aka, the great "unwashed".
NEHTA and its well-funded staff do not want to succeed and transition out of existence. Through self-interest and self-serving behaviours, they just want to continue to exist, enlarge their fiefdoms, and continue to feed handsomely from the well-funded and conveniently supplied tax-payer trough.
I wonder if BCG are getting any "trailing commissions" for NEHTA's continued and ongoing funding, seeing as it was their conceptual and political masterstroke that gave birth and rise to this most dysfunctional yet very lucrative Quasi-Government organisation with accountability to absolutely no-one.
And $1M/day can fund an awful lot of waiting list procedures, so if the PCEHR becomes the suspected while elephant and millennium dome of Australia's ehealth, and a complete waste of tax payer funds, can we please see some NEHTA officers and DOHA bureaucrats in hand-cuffs for manslaughter; please, please, please!