Nehta responds to Lib attack

Beverley Head
Thursday, 21 July 2011 09:14

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The National eHealth Transition Authority has responded to the no-holds barred attack it faced yesterday from Queensland Senator Sue Boyce who accused it of poor progress in terms of delivering an electronic health platform for all Australians, and also called into question the value of a personal controlled electronic health record (PCEHR).

Nehta said yesterday that it wanted to carefully review what Senator Boyce had said before responding.

The Senator certainly didn't mince words, at once stage in her speech to a Sydney health administration conference describing Nehta as; 'A stream of consciousness cult that believes in the power of peyote.'

She said that Nehta, which had received $366.2 million in Government funding had also failed to deliver and quoted long term Nehta critic Dr David More who has accused Nehta of 'incompetence piled on deception'.

This morning a Nehta spokesperson without directly referring to the Senator's speech said the organisation's programme; 'To support a connected health system for Australia is both ambitious and achievable. It's been forecast that by 2020 the improvements we're working towards will save at least 5,000 lives and $7.6 billion each year across Australia.

'We're confident about delivering a world leading Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record system and we have a skilled and committed team working very hard to make sure this happens.'