Four sacked for buying $11m 'custard' system

By QUENTIN CLARKSON

HAMILTON - Health Waikato has scrapped its $11.4 million computer and a third of its board has been sacked for buying a system which was never switched on after 16 months of testing.

Health Minister Annette King yesterday dumped Margaret Evans, David Wickham and Shane Solomon for buying the controversial American computer Shared Medical Systems (SMS).

At a press conference yesterday afternoon, she added director Carrie Hobson to the hit list after receiving further information.

She said new board appointments would be made.

Ms Evans said she had "no idea" why she was fired. All directors had decided last week to dump SMS after it had "turned to custard."

She said she had signed the SMS contract in December because she was "closest to the board office."

Only Ian Glennie remains as an original director, and he could not be contacted.

The only other SMS buyer, Wellington's Capital Health, announced yesterday that it was also ditching some aspects of its $26 million system.

And there was industry speculation that SMS was abandoning ongoing development.

The interim chairman of Health Waikato, Ian Wilson, said SMS was little better than the existing Hospro system and would not cost much to mothball. Staff also were not keen on using it.

"We will write off more than $9 million in capital costs but will be avoiding more than $10 million in further capital expenditure."

Mr Wilson, a former MidCentral Health chairman, was appointed by Mrs King in March, when she also reappointed former member Dr Tony Cull to the board.

Spokeswoman Karen Bennett said 18 people had been redeployed to other positions because of the SMS decision.

Capital Coast said it was not using in its laboratories the patient management system bought about four years ago, and that it had "run into trouble" with it in radiology after earlier dropping it from its pharmacy operation.

Purchase of the two systems was the brainchild of Jack Jenkins, former chairman of both Health Waikato and Capital Coast. He was not available for comment.

Dr Noel Karalus, chairman of the Senior Waikato Medical Staff Association, said it was "absolute garbage" for management to say the $9 million write-off would not affect funding for patient services.

Medical staff had opposed SMS from the start because it was not capable of performing, he said.

Another Waikato Hospital health professional, who did not want to be named, said the system probably cost $14 million, including the training of staff.

It was technically outdated and would have needed a revamp in five years. "It was strong on billing, but not so strong on lab results."

And Hamilton PSA health organiser Dianne Donald said SMS was not user-friendly enough and was bigger than required.

Mrs King yesterday announced she had established a national hospital information technology strategy to prevent similar problems at any of the other 20 boards.

"The Government cannot tolerate millions of dollars of taxpayers' money being wasted like this. This is another example of an ill-begotten National chook coming home to roost."

Other health professionals were critical of Health Waikato in the wake of Mrs King's action.

Ian Powell, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, said Mr Jenkins and his colleagues should be "made to pay for the waste of millions of taxpayers' dollars over their disgraceful computer bungle.

"Taking action against Mr Jenkins and his mates for personal liability will be an interesting test over whether there is any teeth in the Companies Act which covers public hospitals."

A spokesman for the Nurses Organisation, James Ritchie, said Health Waikato's $9 million cost estimate was conservative because it would have cost $72 million to run the computer over five to six years.

"The debacle would never have occurred if hospital and health service boards had been democratically elected and their decisions open to public scrutiny."

Hamilton West MP Tony Gallagher said the board and the previous Minister of Health should apologise to the former chief executive of Health Waikato, Garry Smith, who left unexpectedly in October 1998, just before SMS was introduced.