Auditor general to report on electronic health records
Last Updated: Monday, November 2, 2009 | 6:47 PM ET
CBC News
A report on Canada Health Infoway, an agency designed to help create electronic health records for Canadians, is set to be released by the federal auditor general on Tuesday.
Sheila Fraser's latest report will be released to Parliament.
However, Ottawa decided this year not to give Canada Health Infoway any of the money it was promised.
In the January budget, the federal government said it would give $500 million over three years to the agency. The money was announced as part of an overall infrastructure fund to help the economy during the recession.
But a few weeks ago, the government said the money won't flow before April. The government said it needs the extra time for due diligence.
That delay is a point of frustration for the new president of the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Anne Doig, who has made it her top priority.
"To have been told in January [and] February, the money's coming, the money's coming, and then in the mid-summer we start asking 'OK, where's the money, where's the money?', and there's simply a void in terms of a response," she told CBC News. "That's what's frustrating."
Conversion costly but worthwhile
Doig said she and her partners decided to computerize their office a decade ago. They found it was an expensive process, requiring sophisticated software that ended up costing about $250,000.
Part of the government money was supposed to help small clinics with the cost of converting from paper records to electronic ones.
Dr. Jay Mercer, an Ottawa family doctor, said he and 10 doctors at his clinic decided to make the switch seven years ago and their patients have benefited.
"Often you're being asked to do several hundred things over a three- to five-year period," he said. "And it's interesting. Some of the things they want you to do trigger off the date when the surgery is done, others trigger off the date when the chemotherapy was done. Well, how do you keep those all organized?"
Mercer said electronic medical records come with automatic reminders for everything from follow up appointments to annual pap tests or mammograms, which are critical for treating diseases such as cancer.
Liberal MP Gerard Kennedy acknowledged that in the wake of the eHealth controversy in Ontario, governments everywhere are watching how money is spent on electronic health records, but he said this shouldn't stop the federal government from acting.
"What we get is a pretty confusing, not very competent effort by the government to help the Canadian economy," Kennedy said. "There's a lot of the IT industry that could use a boost from a coherent Health Infoway plan."
Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq declined to comment on the issue.
Canada Health Infoway officials didn't want to do an interview before the auditor general's report is released. But they pointed out that they are making progress toward an electronic health highway.
