Digital transformation is the answer to the health system’s woes, says the government.
Of course, we’ve been here before. Way back in 2005, I was charged with providing support to the project manager responsible for delivering aspects of the last national programme for IT in our locality.
Since then, we’ve been through wave after wave of digital initiatives, each one hampered by chronic under-investment in hardware, support, and training.
The government really has no idea how much this digital transformation will cost. There’s no point rolling out cutting-edge software if the network infrastructure is creaking at the seams.
Big tech has already learnt the hard way of the folly of pushing their wares on organisations which haven’t had a hardware replacement programme in a decade.
The world’s most valuable tech company had to completely reengineer its premiere collaboration app just to stop their customers’ systems grinding to a halt. Good luck if you’re a smaller provider, and haven’t considered optimisation in your architecture.
Digital transformation all sounds good, until you hit realities on the ground. Like IT departments operating on shoestring budgets, for instance, futilely attempting to recruit qualified staff at well below the market rate.
Last modified: 6 October 2024
