As many readers will be aware DoHA has been tendering for assistance with the NEHRS.
You can read all about this Tender here:
As part of the process NEHTA have sent out some responses to questions from possible providers.
Two answers really amused me.
First we had this question and answer response from DoHA:
Q. What is the average skill level required by personnel working under this tender?
A. The average skill level is expected to be equivalent to the Department’s Executive Level 1 ranking. Positions of this level carry significant responsibility and therefore require a higher level of knowledge/qualifications, technical expertise, precision, accuracy and attention to detail. Work is carried out with a clear understanding of the impacts of performance and service delivery for the Department.
Given the importance of these roles to success I has assumed great seniority:
I am assured not so:
“EL 1 is just about the lowest of the low. When I worked at xxxx. the EL1 I worked with was an amateur who couldn't (wasn't allowed) to make decisions and even the Directors were a bit sus. And EL2s come between EL1 and Director.”
Some research reveals the salary level for EL1 being presently advertised is $95,000 to about $105,000. Really hardly a senior level and below all the Senior Executive Service etc.
Even more astonishing we have this:
Q. What is the eHealth Organisation structure?
A. See chart below.
(Sorry it is a bit blurred - you can actually make out most of the text of you expand the image by clicking on it. Using browser increase size also works!)
It is hard to know what to say about this chart. It seems this project is now consuming a vast number of people and if ever there was a Government out of its depth in delivering an e-Health project this has to be it.
The micro management of every aspect, and the apparent duplication of roles with what is being done by NEHTA and all the Contractors must mean a level of difficulty in getting things actually done would be very tricky indeed. They would all be tripping over each other.
Just read through the job roles and ask yourself how many people are in the Australian Public Service who could claim significant expertise in all these roles. We just don’t have them as far as I know and that just adds to the overall risk in my view. You can be sure there are a huge number of generalists just stumbling along and many of them being out of their depth.
Sorry DoHA, this is just not the way to deliver either a Health Program or an IT Project.
As another correspondent said when asked about the chart - ‘Sorry, its doomed’. I can’t but agree.
David.
Thanks to this org chart there is now the beginning of clarity about last week's unanswered question about the size of DOHA's e-health team. It seems, well, a lot of people who are not having their costs counted against the PCEHR, but contributing to the PCEHR? Where is the Audit office when you need it?
ReplyDeletePS the little 'are you a robot' tests before posting comments are getting harder to pass. Am I becoming a robot?
EL2 and Director are the same thing. Good start on the research but keep digging.
ReplyDeleteMy salary range for EL1 is right - and these people are not the people you need to run a national e-Health program. Help yes - manage nope!
ReplyDelete"EL2 and Director are the same thing."
Depends which part of the service. Some are some aren't
David.
It is an all embracing organisational structure. The only real clarity is that there are three major branches
ReplyDelete1. eHealth Policy and Strategy under Liz Forman
2. eHealth Development & Engagement under Sharon Carter
3. eHealth Operations under Matthew Corkhill
After that everything becomes rather blurred.
Of the 12 blocks there are 3 YELLOW blocks ie. 100 percent PCEHR Functions.
There is 1 BLUE block ie. 100 percent other eHealth functions. This is totally devoted to NBN Telehealth Pilots.
The 5 GREEN blocks are other eHealth functions shared 50/50 between DOHA and presumably NEHTA (reflecting NEHTAs transitional status preparatory to government takeover at the appropriate time).
The 3 BROWN blocks are Program Management, Security Support and Operations Support.
The burning questions are:
1. HOW MANY people are employed in each of the coloured blocks?
2. WHAT is the BUDGET of each block?
The logical conclusions that one can draw are that:
1. As the designated roles get progressively fleshed out NEHTA’s role as a ‘Transition Authority’ will become increasingly irrelevant and DOHA or some designated 3rd party will take over – probably Medicare.
2. The size and reach of DOHAs organisational structure ensures that an all embracing government controlled PCEHR is the end game on the proviso that a PCEHR will work and will be widely and enthusiastically embraced by all stakeholders.
3. Additional substantial funding of hundreds of millions of dollars is scheduled to be poured into this organisational structure.
4. The DOHA bureaucracy has convinced itself and the Government that the PCEHR will be the most successful national e-Health system in the world.
Dear 8/20/2012 08:59:00 AM reluctantly I have to agree with your four conclusions which I wouldn’t have done 12 months ago.
ReplyDeleteNow, having had the opportunity of working inside DOHA and NEHTA’s tents and listening to the chitter chatter at meetings I am inclined to give you a 90 percent accuracy score on your predictive conclusions.
The reason I have withheld 10 percent is because of the very high, 95 plus percent, likelihood that the PCEHR will eventually collapse in a heap, even if that does not happen until sometime after your predictions have come to fruition - by which time all those involved today will have moved on to other activities.
Open question: How many people do you think work in the eHealth Division at DOHA?
ReplyDeleteDifficult to tell but looking at the chart above my guess is 100 to 150 maybe even 200 directly involved in ehealth in DOHA.
ReplyDeleteLower...
ReplyDeleteProbably about 75 given 3 Branch Directors with approx 25 people per branch. This would equate to one person for every 10 people in NEHTA.
ReplyDelete"This would equate to one person for every 10 people in NEHTA."
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot less people in Nehta these days. There has been a substantial exodus since the middle of the year, and still no direction provided to the remaining staff of what awaits.