When the now-$427 million program began in 2003, it was hoped that the ICT refresh and rebuild across the state's public hospitals, rural alliances and community health providers would be complete within four years.
But in April this year, Victoria's auditor-general Des Pearson said HealthSmart had been overly ambitious in its targets, and was at least two years behind schedule.
Dubbed 'ServiceFirst', the agency's web site states it has about 540 staff providing services to about 80 agencies with approximately 8,800 staff. It was created over the past few months from the previous CCSU, CSS and Department of Commerce Shared Services branches.
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Acting chief executive Andrew Howard said NEHTA would adopt a different focus over the next 12 months.
"When I joined in April, my impression was of an organisation that had spent 2.5 years not delivering anything, that had no runs on the board and I was concerned it was a theoretical organisation with no understanding of the health industry," Mr Howard told the Health-e-Nation conference in Melbourne this week.
E-government's identity crisis is no reason to perpetuate fragmented and inefficient ICT infrastructure
Governments face a growing challenge as they grapple with the evolving role of ICT in public sector reform. E-government once occupied a modernisation moral high ground, with the Internet as a catalyst for citizen-centric, joined-up government. These days the imperatives are less clear. ICT is starting to be viewed as a problem rather than an opportunity.
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Of the cost blowout to the shared services program, $7 million is for renting floor space that is not being used.
This is despite a warning from the Government's own Office Accommodation Committee about minimising the exposure to what it described as "dead rent".
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