Just A Little Note On The Benefits Claimed By The Pollies For E-Health. They Don’t Know What They Don’t Know.

I have been impressed to see how quickly the politicians have leapt on the $11.5 billion figure for PCEHR benefits over the next 15 years Here is an example of what we heard in the Senate: Senator EGGLESTON (Lib) (Western Australia) It has been forecast that by 2020 e-health capabilities could save up to $7.6 billion a year in health costs by reducing duplication and errors, by improving productivity and by providing better adherence to best practice principles. The government's own numbers suggest that the benefits of e-health records alone in Australia would be $11.5 billion saved by the year 2025. That is an incredibly large figure which in itself justifies completely the introduction of the system. Surely this needs to be followed by something like if you think you can really believe it! Now I am as keen as the next person to see all that benefit - but I really think we need to just conduct a small sanity check. A simple one is to compare today with 15 years ago (the...

This is the initial part of the post - read more by clicking on the title of the article. David.