Sunday, February 09, 2020

Is The Way The ADHA Behaves Symptomatic Of A Larger Affliction In Our Polity?

I know this blog is meant to be about Australian Digital Health but I wonder is the way it is behaving symptomatic of a deeper and more insidious affliction in our democracy – leading to the ongoing loss of public trust in our system of governance and more importantly the failure of those who are influential in the system to properly discharge their responsibilities.
I was led to start thinking about the issue by some of the egregious sort of behaviour we are seeing from our political leaders.
In the last few months we have seen the Sports Rorts Mark 1 and now apparently Mark 2, where there has been clear cut industrial scale pork-barrelling, but those responsible have yet to admit there was any error of judgment or betrayal of public trust by anyone who engineered and executed the scheme!
Similarly we have seen the Australian Federal Police not investigate the source of obvious lies where one politician was attacking another for political advantage and with scarce regard for the truth. Surely someone should pay for the lies?
From both sides we have weak climate policies and adoration of burning coal in Queensland while demanding strict emission regulation and reduction in Victoria. Talk about walking both sides of the street!
My simple point is that there seems to have been corrosion of what I would term a ‘moral compass’ in public life.
Thinking about the ADHA – and being quite clear that the way the ADHA behaves must be Board sanctioned to continue we see.
1. Spin on an epic scale touting the virtues of the #myHealthRecord.
2. Determined secrecy regarding Board discussions and directions – for now 14 months – despite claims of transparency etc.
3. Continued exaggeration of what is actually being delivered.
4. An ongoing lack of assessment of the cost / benefit of the #myHealthRecord and indeed the ADHA itself.
5. Ongoing suppression of any really useful statistics regarding the #myHealthRecord – we have totally feigned transparency!
6. FOI requests are being routinely rejected and then almost totally redacted if released.
None of this would be true if the Board were genuinely operating for the public good I believe.
Overall I suspect the Board looks at the examples cited above and, rather that attempting to raise standards, just implements its version of the governance failures – because it can and basically gives the finger to those who would hope for better both from them and our politicians.
Sadly I am now over 70 but I am sure I can remember a time, not so long ago, when this would not be tolerated from Politicians or Government Agencies. The change is not for the better I believe!
If you think I have lost my marbles – it seems others agree…

Ethics in Australian public life have reached an all-time low




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4 comments:

  1. Long Live T.38February 09, 2020 6:01 PM

    This all reminds me of a term - learned helplessness. The government never empowers the individual or a group of people, take how the PCEHR-MyHR has progressed. The government only empowers itself and institutionalizes learned helplessness, ADHA and DTA are great examples of how government seems to extend control and I still the cult practices.

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  2. Nice but dimFebruary 10, 2020 9:30 AM

    The dumbing down of our commonwealth entities. The comparison of DTA and ADHA is relevant. Both appear o now lack any deep technical leadership qualities but both attempt to hide this by releasing earlier work of previous organisations. Both fail as they are ill equipped to update said material and talk to it.

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  3. Bernard Robertson-DunnFebruary 10, 2020 2:49 PM

    I went to a workshop last week run by some consultants for DTA. The workshop was "What is digital? Co-design the language of digital" They have already run a workshop on "what is transformation?"

    I may be rather cynical but why did the government set up the Digital Transformation Agency without knowing what Digital Transformation is?

    It seems to be an example of a FOMA (Fear Of Missing Out) bureaucratic management style. "Everyone else is doing it - so we had better do it - whatever it is. Let's create a new agency and they can work out what it is. We can then spin it as proof that we are innovative."

    Interestingly, nobody had the foggiest idea what Digital Health is or how it fitted into the sort of definition most people came up with, which was - the delivery of government services via communications and information technology. When aplied to the ADHA it all falls apart - the Federal Government doesn't deliver health services.

    The current bureaucratic mantra is evidence based policy, although at least one politician isn't relying on evidence - he has an open mind.

    If you haven't seen this you should. It explains a lot about Scotty from Marketing and his band of miracle believers.

    https://www.abc.net.au/insiders/the-46th-ozcars/11947518

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  4. Bernard Robertson-DunnFebruary 11, 2020 9:07 AM

    myhr is not the only failed Health initiative.

    Have a look at a report from the Consumer Policy Research Centre

    "Choosing care: the difficulties of navigating home care"

    https://cprc.org.au/2020/01/30/older-australians-left-abandoned-and-confused-by-home-care-system/

    It includes this:

    Information provided in complex ways through channels older people do not use

    * Only 6.8% of respondents reported using information on the My Aged Care online portal, and only 5.8% online more generally to find and compare information about Home Care Packages.

    * 44% of those surveyed reported not being confident when using the internet, the primary channel for information on Home Care Packages

    Sound familiar?

    And here's another question. Why isn't the My Aged Care portal part of the ADHA? It's as much Digital Health as is myhr.

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