Thursday, January 18, 2024

The ADHA Releases Its Annual Report For 2022-23 And Pushes on With The myHR.

The new Annual Report arrived recently:

Here is the link:

https://www.transparency.gov.au/publications/health/australian-digital-health-agency/australian-digital-health-agency-annual-report-2022-2023

Whatever is contained in the report the front page is totally amazing claiming that “Our work means so much to so many” Certainly they are pretty full of their own importance!

Part 1 of the Report has some useful facts!

Information about this Part

Part 1 provides a view of the Agency at a glance – an overview of the Agency’s purpose, role, strategy and functions and an outline of the path ahead.

The Agency at a glance

Purpose

Better health for all Australians enabled by connected, safe, secure and easy-to-use digital health services.

Foundations

The Agency was established on 30 January 2016 and began operations on 1 July 2016, with a vision of improving health outcomes for Australians through the delivery of digital innovation, health systems and services.

Enabling legislation

The Public Governance, Performance and Accountability (Establishing the Australian Digital Health Agency) Rule 2016 (Agency Rule) 1 created the Agency and governs its operations. The Rule was made by the Minister for Finance under Section 87 of the PGPA 2 that allows for the establishment of corporate Commonwealth entities. The Agency was the first in the Commonwealth to be established by Section 87 of the PGPA Act.

Products and services

The Agency has a lead role in stewarding, operating and developing the national digital health infrastructure that underpins the delivery of digital health in Australia. This vital infrastructure is an enabler for digital health foundations including:

  • My Health Record system
  • Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service
  • National Authentication Service for Health (NASH)
  • Secure messaging delivery
  • National Clinical Terminology Service (NCTS) including SNOMED CT-AU and Australian Medicines Terminology (AMT)
  • Clinical content specifications based on Clinical Document Architecture (CDA) and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®)
  • Provider Connect Australia (PCA)
  • Vaccine Clinic Connect Finder.

Governing, operating and maintaining this infrastructure is a core activity for the Agency and ensures that Australian healthcare consumers and healthcare providers can be confident they are using clinically safe systems to support their health and care needs. Part 1 provides further detail on this activity. 

Delivery priorities for 2022–23

Over the course of 2022–23, the Agency led the way in advancing and expediting digital innovation as part of the broader national health agenda. The Agency’s Corporate Plan 2022–23 championed 3 strategic areas of focus:

  • Infrastructure solutions and initiatives
  • Interoperability supporting connected health and care
  • National digital health initiatives.

Performance against each priority area is captured in Part 2 of this report. 

Governance structure

The Agency is a corporate Commonwealth entity, established by a rule under the PGPA Act. Information about our governance, management and accountability framework is covered in Part 3 of the report.

Board as the accountable authority

A Board, chaired by Dr Elizabeth Deveny, is the Agency’s accountable authority. As the accountable authority, the Board sets the objectives, strategies and policies 3 for the Agency and is responsible for the proper and efficient performance of the Agency’s functions. 4

Advisory committees

The Board is supported in the performance of its functions by advisory committees. Four standing advisory committees are established under the Agency Rule:

  • Clinical and Technical Advisory Committee
  • Jurisdictional Advisory Committee
  • Consumer Advisory Committee
  • Privacy and Security Advisory Committee.

The Agency also has an Audit and Risk Committee, as required under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014.

Intergovernmental

The Agency operates under an Intergovernmental Agreement between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments. Under this agreement, the Agency works closely with the states and territories to transform how health information is used to deliver better healthcare and implement a world-class digital health capability in Australia.  

Portfolio and ministerial oversight

The Agency sits within the Health and Aged Care portfolio and is accountable to the Ministers of the Health and Aged Care portfolio:

  • The Hon Mark Butler MP, Minister for Health and Aged Care
  • The Hon Anika Wells MP, Minister for Aged Care and Minister for Sport
  • The Hon Ged Kearney MP, Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care
  • The Hon Emma McBride MP, Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention and Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health
  • Senator the Hon Malarndirri McCarthy, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health.

Our people and their location

At 30 June 2023, the Agency had 412 permanent staff with offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra.

Funding

The Agency is jointly funded by the Commonwealth ($229.5 million) and the states and territories ($32.25 million), reflecting the commitment at all levels of government to the delivery of digital health reform.

Financial outcome

  • Operating loss: $32.8 million
  • Operating revenue: $255.9 million
  • Operating expenses: $288.7 million

The Agency’s financial performance and the Australian National Audit Office’s (ANAO) audited financial statements are presented in Part 4 of this report.

---- End Section

The Corporate Plan can be accessed from this link:

https://previewapi.transparency.gov.au/delivery/assets/80a82ed1-3e33-027b-b7e0-6493f97f18f8/f802dc8b-2e84-43a4-822b-ffbf7a38db4a/adha_cp_2022-23.pdf

It is 54 pages and says that the Agency is funded until June 30, 2023.

There are pages and pages of measures as to how the ADHA is going but no results for any of these measures.

I wonder how anyone actually knows who is doing what for whom.

Surely with $250M + and 400+ staff there should be progress reports and outcome measures!!!

Can someone send me some?

David.

2 comments:

  1. re: Surely with $250M + and 400+ staff there should be progress reports and outcome measures!!! Can someone send me some? David.

    see this paragraph.

    ... the Agency works closely with the states and territories to transform how health information is used to deliver better healthcare and implement a world-class digital health capability in Australia

    It's the state who are delivering healthcare and they are the ones implementing their own integrated healthcare record systems.

    It's interesting that most of the data in MyHR is for patients in the public system.

    So when people get older and cannot afford private healthcare, their MyHR is likely to be empty.

    Just when they start to need health information the most.

    Nice to know it's all been thought through comprehensively. Not!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Than goodness they aren't practising clinical medicine - or we would all be dead!

    ReplyDelete