Still no comment about several healthcare professionals who have slated Victoria's healthcare failures following 11 years of Labor rule as an "embarrassment".


These are people's lives that are in danger.

A baby being operated on in a chair because beds aren't available.
An IT system 5 years delayed and $35m over budget.

Shambles.

Care to comment on why people in the industry - who work in it every single day unlike you or I, have labelled it 'embarrassing'.....

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2011 at 11:19am:




What "people" ?
How many of them ?
Who are they ?

buzzanddidj wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2011 at 11:24am:


The HealthSMART program - five years late and $35 million over budget - is supposed to link computer systems in hospitals and introduce processes such as electronic prescribing.

But clinical applications are only partially running in just four hospitals, and doctors say patient safety is compromised by inadequate procedures that causes them to duplicate paperwork, chase test results and compete for access to computer terminals.

Advertisement: Story continues below In a state budget submission, the Australian Medical Association has called for a further $328 million to be invested on health technology over the next four years, with a focus on providing ready access to patient records, test results and medication details.

AMA Victoria president Harry Hemley said health technology in Victoria bordered on the embarrassing, and ''patients would be appalled at the lack of IT, computers and connectivity between different areas of the health system''.

Dr Hemley said many promises had been made about HealthSMART's ability to revolutionise technology in hospitals, but the project had been bitterly disappointing despite hundreds of millions of dollars in investment.

''HealthSMART still has potential to deliver a vastly superior health IT system but it needs to be seen as an ongoing investment,'' he said.

"Hospitals need to be supported with additional targeted funding to build their basic IT infrastructure and to bring these programs online, rather than divert funds from elsewhere in their budgets.''

Health board minutes have previously revealed that hospitals were being left to meet funding gaps for millions of dollars under the program, and concerns had been raised with the former government that it placed their organisations at risk.

West Gippsland Healthcare Group chief executive Ormond Pearson said instead of introducing critically important clinical applications, the program had simply replaced existing systems used for non-clinical areas such financial management.

''We've really replaced [existing] business systems, and [the HealthSMART versions] haven't proven to be the most efficient systems and have caused us some grief,'' he said.

Victorian Healthcare Association chief executive Trevor Carr called for an honest dialogue about the program and ''transparency around the real cost of implementation''.

Mr Carr said there was ''a sense of secrecy and a sense there's been a bit of a cover-up'' about the program's failings.

''We've got to make sure we have integrated systems within agencies. That hasn't been achieved at this stage and it's a big issue because it creates duplication of process and that is costly,'' he said.

''Other governments have walked away from failed health IT projects and decided to dump them and start from scratch. That's what we need to have a long hard look at - whether it's that diabolical, and if it's not, how we can go about gaining the improvements we really do need to gain.''

A junior hospital physician who did not want to be named told The Age: ''When I need to check a blood test or X-ray, I can spend five minutes searching for a computer and five minutes waiting for it to load. I'd far rather spend that time with patients.

''Ultimately, I'd like to be able to click a button in [the emergency ward] that brings up a patient's medication and their past history from their GP.''

Then there is the Victorian Emergency Physicians Association.....

++++++++++++++


Cases highlighted by the Victorian Emergency Physicians Association show a wider risk to public safety because of bed shortages.

Last March, a heartbroken doctor had to ask a grandparent holding an infant to leave so they could treat her on a bedside chair - no other space was available and all resuscitation cubicles at the hospital in Melbourne's southeast had patients on life support.

"Although baby survived, the incredulous looks between the grandparent, the infant's family, myself and staff are unforgettable," the doctor said.

Melbourne's busiest emergency departments turned away ambulances for more than 4300 hours in just six months last year.

But VEPA president Dr Con Georgakas said the situation was even worse, with hospital administrators blocking physician requests to go on bypass when it was in the interests of patient safety.

"If we were able to get those patients who need to stay in hospital overnight up to the hospital wards promptly, then new patients arriving by ambulance would go straight to a bed in the emergency department," he said.

"The real problem here is a lack of capacity in our hospital system.

"VEPA is calling on the State Government to fulfil its promise of more beds before this situation deteriorates further. We need those beds available 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2011 at 11:33am:


Oh I think the fact the Health IT system has not yet been released is appalling.

One question though Hickory:
Aren't you the one who constantly advocates for government cuts to absolutely everything?  Is this yet another one of your "let's just have a bicker about something" posts?  Or are you finally getting some sense in u? Wow...

buzzanddidj wrote on Mar 23^rd, 2011 at 11:39am:


It's alright, wait till it hits $6 a gallon again very soon and they'll start pondering why they need big 4WD trucks again, and begin their normal whinging.

Its sad how Brumby felt it was more important to have more spin doctors on his payroll than docs case workers.

Seems like marketing was more important to him than the welfare of its states children.