Digital Health Seems To Be A Winner In The Recent NSW Budget!

This appeared last week:

1 July 2021

Health tech wins big in NSW budget

By Holly Payne

In what it is calling a record investment in health, the NSW Liberal government has committed more than $30 billion to the sector in this week’s budget announcement.

As expected, big chunks of change are heading straight to the pandemic front lines, funding PPE, vaccine distribution and pop-up clinics.

Major health infrastructure projects and rural health, all told, were allocated $4 billion for health capital projects across regional and metro areas.

Digital health was the next biggest winner, with $500 million in funding earmarked for various projects over the next four years, including the Single Digital Patient Record, Real Time Prescription Monitoring and the NSW Telestroke Service.

The Single Digital Patient Record initiative, which received $141 million in the budget, has been in the works for almost two years and promises to consolidate patient records from three different patient management systems.

The platform will collate data from Patient Administration System (PAS), Electronic Medical Record (eMR) and Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) to create a “lifelong” patient record which can be accessed anywhere within the state’s health system.

Although NSW Health has plans to deliver the initiative in partnership with an industry vendor, the final solution will not be available in primary care or private hospitals.

Due to a lengthy procurement process, it is likely that it will take another five years for the cloud-based project to be fully implemented.

Real Time Prescription Monitoring is another long called-for initiative, with systems already implemented in Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT, and in development in Queensland and South Australia.

The NSW government has allocated $37.3 million for the program, which will “track medicines associated with a high risk of causing harm, dependence or misuse”.

It appears the funding couldn’t come at a better time, with research published in the MJA just this week finding more than half of unintentional opioid deaths in Australia involve prescription opioids.

Using real time monitoring, prescribers and dispensers will be able to identify patients who may be drug-dependent or drug-seeking.

NSW Health plans to introduce regulations to support Real Time Prescription Monitoring via an amendment to the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Regulation 2008.

More here:

https://wildhealth.net.au/health-tech-wins-big-in-nsw-budget/

The big item is clearly the Single Digital Patient Record program which seems have been going for a few years and is now to run for another five or so. To me it looks a little like one of those ‘boil the ocean’ programs and there does not seem to be much information about the intended purpose and benefits of all this.

Here is the most recent release I can find:

Single digital patient record set to deliver vastly improved patient experience

23 December 2020

With a focus on improved safety, and the quality and continuity of patient care, the single digital patient record initiative will provide a consistent experience for patients and clinicians, as well as improving data analytics and clinical decision support.

To be developed in partnership with industry, the Single Digital Patient Record (SDPR) system, will provide holistic medical information at the point of care. The single platform will incorporate Patient Administration System (PAS), Electronic Medical Record (eMR) and Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) capabilities.

“While this initiative will provide untold benefits to all the patients of NSW, we are excited about its potential for improving the health outcomes of our regional patients,” Dr Andrew Montague, Chief Executive, Central Coast Local Health District said.

“By enabling greater collaboration across all local health districts and specialty health networks, the Single Digital Patient Record will provide clinicians with even better tools to keep the patient at the centre of everything we do.”

The SDPR will consolidate geographically fragmented eMR, PAS and LIMS systems to create a detailed lifelong patient record and deliver cost savings. It will also help provide data that can be used to improve health services.

“The eHealth NSW strategy aims to deliver world class, digitally-enabled, integrated, patient-centred healthcare and will position us well to deliver against the Future Health Strategy for NSW,” Andrew Perkins, Executive Director, Investment, Strategy and Architecture, eHealth NSW added.

“The concept of a Single Digital Patient Record will transform the way we deliver healthcare, and most importantly, will improve the safety, quality and consistency of patient care.”

The SDPR will provide patients with a more seamless care experience by allowing NSW Health clinicians to be better informed, ensuring patients will only have to provide their health information once, even if they need to go to different hospitals.

It will give patients the confidence that regardless of where they live or which service they attend, their information will be available to their treating clinician in its entirety.

“Our vision is to be able to provide a single, holistic, statewide view of every patient – and for that information to be readily accessible to anyone involved in the patient’s care,” Dr Zoran Bolevich, Chief Information Officer NSW Health, Chief Executive eHealth NSW said.

“A key vehicle for this vision is the Single Digital Patient Record initiative.”

In October 2020, eHealth NSW released an Expression of Interest (EOI) for SDPR with the view of identifying a shortlist of suppliers. Successful applicants will proceed to the next procurement stage in early 2021. The initiative is expected to be implemented over a period of six years following successful completion of the multistep procurement process.

https://www.ehealth.nsw.gov.au/features/sdpr

I must say I have read claims like those above for a good decade or two and have seldom seen them delivered. Time will tell I guess!

Any up to date feedback welcome!

David.