This appeared late last week:
RACGP disappointed with ACeH committee structure
16 October 2015
The newly established Australian Commission for e-Health (ACeH) Implementation Taskforce Steering Committee must include medical organisation representation, not just individual appointments, if it is to succeed.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) President Dr Frank R Jones said it was disappointing the committee, which will oversee the My Health Record system, did not include RACGP representation or any representative group.
“Appointments to the ACeH Implementation Taskforce Steering Committee should have been an inclusive process featuring stakeholder representative groups, not just individuals,” Dr Jones said.
“As the peak representative body for 31,500 GPs working in or towards a career in general practice with a history of being at the forefront of innovation, standards and education in the health sector, it is unacceptable that we and others have been excluded from the taskforce.
“This is regrettable. We have always stated we wish to work in collaboration with government.
“I do acknowledge there are clinician representatives on the committee, however they have been appointed in a personal professional capacity and not as a representative voice.”
The RACGP has been an advocate for a national shared electronic health record system, recently welcoming the commitment made by the Government in its 2015-16 budget to strengthen the national e-Health system.
Dr Jones said there were significant problems with the design and functionality of current My Health Record (previously known as the personally controlled electronic health record, or PCEHR), that required meaningful engagement between the Federal Government and general practice if it were to be a success and drive adoption amongst GPs, who will be the main users of the system.
The full release is here
Like the AMA, the RACGP has continued to be polite and tolerant of all the obvious missteps.
Surely the time to amp up the pressure has arrived - even if it is in private. However, results are needed soon or the mess will get worse I believe and we really could do without that!
David.
This is another sign that ACeH will just be NeHTA by another name.
ReplyDeleteNeHTA appointed (and sometimes funded) assorted sympathisers and mates to its committees, explicitly avoiding peak body representation.
This may have made for more congenial meetings (and there were plenty of them), but it was very unhelpful when engagement with the real world was required.
I hope that no member of the taskforce/steering committee become a governing members of ACeH, if so then it is going to be a lot worse going forward. Surely COAG is not that silly
ReplyDeleteCOAG is a committee. Committees are made up of people. Individuals on the committee tween members to the point that no one individual is accountable - hence no one is accountable. As a consequence the loudest and strongest get heard; the others get drowned out.
ReplyDeleteCommittees can be very very silly indeed because no one is accountable. I hope that makes sense.