Health-care professionals called on the federal government Wednesday to proceed with shelved plans to give $500 million to Canada Health Infoway, a federal agency that this week, received a clean bill of managerial health from Auditor General Sheila Fraser.
The Conservatives had been spooked by a scandal that plagued the Ontario government over misspent public funds at that province's electronic health records agency. The decision to freeze the funding frustrated and disappointed Canada's doctors and health-care providers.
“This money is critical for front-line clinicians,” Dr. Anne Doig, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said in a telephone interview from her Saskatoon office. “There's been no explanation from the federal government why they froze the funding. It's frustrating.”
The federal government promised in the January budget to provide Infoway with $500 million to “not only enhance the safety, quality and efficiency of the health-care system but (also to make) a significant positive contribution to Canada's economy, including the creation of thousands of sustainable, knowledge-based jobs.”
Canada Health Infoway is a not-for-profit foundation whose members are the federal, provincial and territorial health departments. Since it was established by the Liberals in 2001, it has received $1.5 billion in federal funds to work toward the goal of having an electronic medical records system in place across the country.
Anthony Dale, vice-president, policy and public affairs for the Ontario Hospital Association, said that while he understands the government's caution in the wake of the Ontario scandal, he believes Infoway is “an outstanding steward of public resources” and urged Ottawa to sign the cheque.
“It will go a long way to improving patient safety,” said Dale. “It would be our strong recommendation to the government to release those funds.”
The official line from the Finance Department is that its due diligence will not be complete by the end of this fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2010.
“We're reviewing that (funding commitment), given some of the difficulties that have occurred in e-health systems in Canada,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Wednesday. “It won't take that long, but we're reviewing it. We just want to make sure that the money will be well-spent.”
Fraser, on Tuesday, said there was no evidence taxpayer funds were being inappropriately used at Infoway.
“We have no concerns,” Fraser said.
A member of Fraser's auditing team said, “Overall, we feel Infoway is a well-run organization. There's good oversight and good management controls in place.” The auditor spoke on condition of anonymity.
Infoway itself, has also undergone annual audits by outside agencies and had an outside auditor examine one of its projects.
Flaherty's budget also said “Infoway's actions are already translating into real benefits for patients throughout Canada.”
Without the money, Infoway will not be able to create the “thousands of sustainable” jobs promised in the budget and the delay means Infoway cannot roll out new programs that would have given hospitals, clinics, and doctors across the country computerized access to patients records, an initiative that promised lower health-care costs and better care.
“This is the first time that money was to have flowed to front-line clinicians,” Doig said.
“I imagine the delay in delivering 2009 funding for the Canada Health Infoway was a result of a lack of leadership and courage in the face of the auditor general's review,” said Liberal MP John McCallum. “Now that the AG has given a clean bill of health to this solid Liberal program, I sincerely hope that the government will move quickly to fund it.”