Where did the common-sense button go?
News that doctors have been paid an incentive for implementing e-health systems that are not available has floored me.
I can't blame the doctors for claiming offered money for taking part in a program. However, given that the government knew that the systems involved in parts of the program were not going to be available on time, why didn't anyone stop the flow of compensation?
Apparently the risk that systems might be delayed was identified early, but no one did anything to stop the incentive program. Instead everything trundled along as normal, ending in systems not being ready.
No one thought to say "In that case, we should probably delay payments for that part of the incentive". (I'm not sure of the legal ins and outs of being able to do so, but surely someone must have written a contingency into whatever doctors had to sign to be a part of the program, especially since $83 million was budgeted for the e-health portion of the incentive program per year.)
After brooding, I came up with a number of reasons why no one put up their hands and said "let's stop the free lunch":
- Everyone knew it was going on, thought about doing something, but decided it wasn't really their responsibility to do so.
- Optimism abounded that somehow the system might get off the ground.
- No one cared. What's $83 million of taxpayer's money anyway?
- No one in government thinks about anything. They're full of "rule-abiding, follow instructions" type of people who want to do what they're told to maintain steady employment.
This last point made me think of an article on psychology I read a while back. There are countries in which citizens are rule abiding, no matter how little sense the rules make. For instance, if there's a stop sign in the middle of the Nullarbor Plain, do you stop at it, with nothing for miles in either direction? Some people do. Citizens of other countries don't obey the rules if they don't believe they're right. Of course, this can sometimes cause problems.
Do we only have the first type of people in government? If so, I fear for us.