Snail's pace in the public health service

The CEO of Abelia, Paul Chaffey, is to present his views on the use of ICT in the health and care sector at this year's telemedicine conference in Tromsø on 9 June. Photo: Abelia.

“The health sector is moving at a snail's pace According to measurements by the Norwegian trade and employers' association Abelia, renewal in the health sector through the use of ICT has shown little or no progress in many areas during the past two years,” says Paul Chaffey.

He is one of the keynote speakers at this year's telemedicine conference in Tromsø from 9 to 11 June.

Has evaluated strategy

The CEO of Abelia believes that the government is not exploiting the potential of effective electronic solutions to reduce costs and increase quality and efficiency in the health and care sector. 

This conclusion is the result of Abelia's evaluation of the national strategy for ICT development in the health and care sector, the Te@mwork 2007 plan.

Need both carrot and stick

Paul Chaffey believes that both incentives and political pressure are needed if the various players in the health sector are to introduce better ICT solutions to a greater extent.

“Our intention is not to criticize Norwegian authorities, who have been working in a goal-oriented way for a long time. We were asked to evaluate the Te@mwork plan, and in this work we have seen that more dramatic measures are needed to build up momentum in the processes. Of course, the challenges arise from the complexity and size of the health sector as well as the number of administrative levels involved,” he concedes.

Must invest now

According to Chaffey's assessment, we simply do not have time to be patient any longer. Demographic trends indicate that we need more hands and more heads to meet the needs of the growing number of elderly people in the population.

“Investments are needed to enable automation of everything that can be automated to free hands to help those who really need human contact and closeness,” emphasizes the head of Abelia. 

At this year's telemedicine conference in Tromsø on 9 June, you can hear about Paul Chaffey's visions for the use of ICT in the health and care sector during the coming years. How long will it take before you can contact the hospital via a single keystroke?

Auditor General agrees with Chaffey

Abelia's evaluation is supported by the Office of the Auditor General, which draws a similar conclusion in its recent survey on the use of ICT in hospitals and electronic collaboration in the health service.

"The Ministry of Health and Care Services has not met its responsibility to follow up the national ICT initiatives", states the Auditor General, Jørgen Kosmo.