Ehealth Ontario: What a waste of money

Posted by Laura Steiner Aug 16, 2009

The Ontario government last September started Ehealth Ontario- an agency designed to take our medical records and put them on computer. The thinking behind it was simply that it would make it easier for doctors and specialists to access the records- one record for a patient's medical history... simple idea that makes sense right?

Somewhere along the line something went badly wrong. The accusations being levelled against McGuinty are that he hired the now ex-CEO Sarah Kramer against the advice of others; that he had a direct hand in appointing her. She was appointed as part of an order-in-council meaning the lieutenant governor directly appoints her based on the advice of a minister- in this case allegedly the Premier. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if he did... Mr. McGuinty hasn't had the most sterling of reputations lately.

A spending scandal developed; it was revealed consultants were billing hundreds, and sometimes thousands of dollars to the taxpayers for little or no work. Contracts were being given out not to the company who could do it for a reasonable price, but to those that were allegedly friendly toward the Liberals. Somebody even claimed $1.65 for tea for goodness sake- would it honestly hurt somebody to lose that much? A 3-minute speech was written for $25,000. I looked at that one and thought: I could write it for $20 thousand.

Two people have now lost their job: Sarah Kramer, the ex-CEO, and Chariman Alan Hudson. Kramer got a bonus for her troubles. A third should lose their job: Health Minister David Caplan. This happened on his watch, and he should bear some of the responsibility. How he missed being shuffled out of Health in that cabinet shuffle, I'll never know.

This waste of money disrespects the taxpayer. It's like nobody cares about the money we work hard for, and give to the politicans in our tax dollars. And we 'trust' them with it to look after our needs as a society. It seems to me this project should either be shelved until we get a government we trust, or altogether reworked so that it's a lot more transparent.

For more information see: Ontario's Ehealth Chariman Alan Hudson Retires

And: Ehealth CEO Sarah Kramer Resigns