IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The Quensland Government is seeking a consultant to help overhaul Queensland Shared Services (QSS) before the provider is forced to face competition from the open market.

At present the government-operated shared services provider enjoys agency patronage through a central government mandate rather than market appeal. The Queensland Commission of Audit put an end to this when it recommended the Government abolish the mandate earlier this year.

The Telehealth Centre at Princess Alexandra Hospital opened last week as part of a $5.1 million online outreach services project to help bridge the gap in health care in rural areas such as Mount Isa.

The facility is designed to link the hospital with towns such as Mount Isa and Cloncurry to provide patient consultations via video link, allowing for at least 5000 assessments annually.

From Alpha in central west Queensland, Health Minister Lawrence Springborg announced to media in Kedron the seven evaluation sites for the expansion of the telehealth service, with the Central West Hospital and Health Board dialling in from Boulia.

Working towards reducing travel, time and expenses for patients in Central Highlands, Dr Ewen McPhee has adopted telehealth video conferencing technology, which allows consultations to be held with specialists across the state.

This new Business and System Efficiency (BaSE) roll-out will help integrate 62 individual and outdated council systems into a single platform.

This BaSE project will help manage council activities and information-sharing activities — from automating payroll systems to improving service delivery across the State.

Brisbane City Council has begun an audit to find 25 "digital champions" among the capital's 50,000 businesses ahead of the launch of the city's first digital strategy in December.

The city's move follows the appointment in July of chief digital officer Kieran O'Hea, who has been charged with boosting technology uptake and turning Brisbane into a hub for digital businesses.

Nicola Roxon, Minister for Health and Ageing said that Brisbane will have three of the 12 national e-health implementation sites. Brisbane’s South General Practice Division and Mater Misericordiae Health Services have been selected as the two implementation sites of the e-health projects and will also join the existing projects of GP partners and Queensland health.

The Queensland Government has added seven regional sites, including Bedourie, to its telehealth network which will allow doctors to connect to specialists in the city.

Bruce Scott says Bedourie is not connected by optic fibre cables.

"A Personally Controlled Electronic Hallows you, and medical professionals authorised by you, to access health details, such as any current medications, allergies, immunisation status and health conditions," Sunshine Coast Medicare Local CEO, Ian Landreth said.

UnitingCare Health in Queensland executive director Richard Royle said the 100-bed St Stephen’s hospital at Hervey Bay, 300km north of Brisbane, would open in early October and integrate with the federal government’s personally controlled electronic health record — something he knows intimately.

While southeast Queensland is being given a large-scale digital boost, the funding might have better served smaller infrastructure projects.

Earlier this year, the Federal Government announced the South East Queensland (SEQ) City Deal (the Deal). With my interest in smart city developments, I had a good look at this plan.

The technology, which was released last year, allows all Australians to control an online summary of their medical records which can be shared with and added to by a number of health professionals.

Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health director Professor Sabina Knight says Mount Isa and the North West is the first area that all health professionals are working together to understand the new technology and get more community members to sign-up.

From today (July 11) residents can log on to access a number of Council services online, including information about their animals, properties and rates charges and balances.

Mayor Gerard O'Connell said the program would help simplify residents' dealings with Council.

This is the type of medical service being offered with technology developed on the Gold Coast.

The brainchild of Dr Ramana Panda, Telehealth Networks promises to deliver vastly improved access to medical care for patients in remote and regional Australia.

Queensland’s agriculture industry will have a new workplace health and safety tool thanks to a Digital Transformation Grant as part of Queensland’s Economic Recovery Plan.

Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries and Minister for Rural Communities Mark Furner said the Central Highlands Regional Resources Use Planning Cooperative (CHRRUP) would use its $38,500 grant to develop the SafeStation app, which is custom-made for agriculture being used mostly by clients in Central Queensland.

In the Health Minister's lexicon is ending wasteful and unnecessary spending, and ensuring that the systems needed to run the mega-department actually work.

He says much of that waste has been caused by the centralisation of the health system, and a preoccupation with an ever growing bureaucracy that has come at the expense of patient care.

UnitingCare Health and Cerner Australia signed a contract to provide e-health services for the new St Stephen's Hospital this week, and staff have already been recruited from the United States to lead the initiative.

"This is an important milestone for the project," UnitingCare Health executive director Richard Royle said.

More than 400,000 Queensland homes and businesses have access to the network so far, with another 600,000 to be added this year.

The National Broadband Network could add $400 million a year to Queensland’s economy, a new study reveals.

Analysis of the impact high-speed internet connection will have on the bottom line of businesses forecasts a 1.8 per cent lift in GDP. But companies remain frustrated at the time the program is taking to reach them.

The Rural Telehealth Service, which started in February last year, has been connecting patients in remote areas to doctors in cities via video link.

Eight-year-old Indra was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes three years ago and since then, they've had to regularly travel long distances to see pediatric specialists.

But thankfully Telehealth is changing the face of treatment for people in rural areas.