NSW opposition calls for health IT action
NSW shadow Health Minister Jillian Skinner this week demanded the NSW Government speed up its response to special commissioner Garling's damning assessment of NSW's Health's technology systems.
Last Friday NSW Premier Nathan Rees said the government would give an official response to special commissioner Peter Garling's inquiry into the NSW acute health care system by March next year — up to five months after the review's release.
The 1,100 page review, released late last week, slammed the information technology systems that supported NSW's health system.
Garling called NSW Health's record-keeping system "a relic of the pre-computer age". Garling recommended a "one-off injection" of $704 million to remedy the acute health care system, which he found had been bogged down by poor processes and inadequate technology.
Shadow minister for health Jillian Skinner told ZDNet.com.au that the blame for NSW Health's IT systems lay entirely with the government and that waiting until March for a response to Garling's recommendations would be "excessive".
"I would expect the State Labor Government to respond to Commissioner Garling's inquiries as soon as possible. More than four months seems excessive, but then again, when has the State Labor Government ever responded quickly to anything. Patients would expect those recommendations which can be acted up on now to be well and truly sorted out by March," she said.
"The State Labor Government bears ultimate responsibility for the failings of the Health IT system," she added. "It has mismanaged the network for the past 13 years. Successive Labor Premiers and Labor Health Ministers have failed to implement systems that improve the standard of patient care."
Garling's recommendation to boost funding came the day prior to this weekend's Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting at which the federal government approved an additional $208 million for the National e-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA). The COAG meeting, however, focused on sub-acute health care, which was not the main focus of Garling's inquiry.
NSW Premier Nathan and Health Minister John Della Bosca last Friday said the recommendations had given the government "an action plan to deliver improvements" to acute healthcare in NSW. However, neither directly addressed the 462 pages which Garling had given to his scathing assessment of technology systems used within NSW's health.
A spokesperson for NSW Health's technology division, which is headed up by chief information officer Mike Rillstone, said the department had already made headway on some of Garling's recommendations.
"[NSW] Health is already going down the path for improved health IT capacity particularly with regards to patient records, but like all other recommendations from Garling they will be reviewed in the context of the entirety of the recommendations," a spokesperson told ZDNet.com.au on Friday.
The spokesperson added that the discussions of sackings as a result of Garling's findings had not occurred.
"Sackings are not on the agenda. We're looking at what his recommendations and where benefits are to improving service delivery to patients. It's about doing things better," he said. "Our primary concern is digesting this enormous body of work and it would be inappropriate to preempt any decision that may be made after we assess the report and recommendations."