Liar McGuinty cancels promised eHealth inquiry

Keith Leslie wrote in “Scandal-plagued eHealth gets third CEO in 3 months, fourth by end of year”, (Canadian Press, Aug.11, 2009):

“The opposition parties accused the Liberal government of incompetence Tuesday after eHealth Ontario named its third chief executive officer in as many months, with a fourth to be appointed before the end of this year.
The government can play musical chairs with the CEOs all it wants, but the bottom line is Health Minister David Caplan should be fired, said Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.
"It's either incompetence or neglect, neither of which is excusable when it comes to scarce health dollars," said Hudak. "We need a new minister to come in there and clean up this mess."
The New Democrats repeated their call for Caplan's resignation, and said rotating through CEOs only creates uncertainty at eHealth and detracts from its mandate to develop electronic health records.
"It shows the government in a scramble and they're trying to plug a leaking dike, but the whole eHealth situation is one the government has fumbled very, very badly," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
"To put yet another interim person in place just shows they really have no idea how to get themselves out of this mess and how to get eHealth back on track."
Former eHealth CEO Sarah Kramer and former board chair Dr. Alan Hudson both resigned in June after the Conservatives and New Democrats complained the agency gave out $5 million in untendered contracts to consulting companies.
Documents released by the government last week showed the value of those untendered contracts was closer to $16 million, with the biggest ones going to companies the opposition parties say have ties to the Liberal government.
EHealth's board of directors announced Tuesday it had appointed Toronto East General CEO Robert Devitt as the new interim president and chief executive officer of the provincial agency.
However, Devitt's appointment will end on December 31, 2009, and in the meantime, eHealth's board will search for a permanent CEO. Ron Sapsford, who had been acting CEO of eHealth since Kramer's resignation, will return to his role as a deputy minister of Health.
Provincial Auditor General James McCarter will report on his investigation of eHealth in September, but the opposition parties are still angry with the Liberals for quietly cancelling an outside review by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which McGuinty had promised in June.
"It's true, we did say that we thought there should be an independent, third-party review by PriceWaterhouse, and at the time we did know as well that the auditor was going to conduct his own independent review," McGuinty admitted Tuesday.
"Since that time, the auditor has approached us and said, 'You've got to stop the PriceWaterhouse thing, it is excessive, I'll be doing that work anyway."'
However, the June 29 letter from the auditor general to the eHealth board merely pointed out that his efforts would duplicate the work of PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and did not recommend the outside review be cancelled as McGuinty claimed.
"Clearly, the decision to engage PWC is the board's and the minister's to make," McCarter wrote in the letter as he also pledged to co-operate with PriceWaterhouseCoopers on their review of eHealth.
EHealth was set up last year to create electronic health records after the first provincial agency given that task, Smart Systems for Health, spent $650 million but failed to produce anything of lasting value before it was quietly shut down last September.
Ontario lags behind most other provinces and many U.S. states when it comes to electronic health records, which the opposition parties agree are very important. But they say the spending scandal will make it even harder for Ontario to catch up.
"Instead of electronic health records, the focus has been on trying to clean up the mess (at eHealth), and it really doesn't give people a lot of confidence," said Horwath.
"You mention the word eHealth anywhere in Ontario and people just shake their head in disgust."
The eHealth scandal "is creating an entire crisis of confidence in electronic health records in our province," warned Hudak.
"What had been a good idea has turned into a scandal of spending abuses, and now a clear example of mismanagement with three CEOs in three months," he said.”

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Disgusting, disingenuous liar Dalton McGuinty is at it once again, peddling his smarmy Liberal Healthcare Duplicity. (see:http://rightinniagara.blogspot.com/2007/08/liberal-healthcare-duplicity-ontario.html)

It’s come to the point where you just can’t believe anything McGuinty or any of his Lying Grits have to say.

McGuinty's Liberals promised an independent inquiry into their eHealth scandal – and remember... this was only AFTER they were caught! (As Antonella Artuso and Jonathan Jenkins wrote in "Liberals on defensive over eHealth scandal", (Niagara Falls Review, Jun.5, 2009): "Another external review of eHealth by PriceWaterhouse-Coopers -- overseen by a ministry of health auditor -- is expected in July.")

Now a slimy McGuinty backpedals, alleging that the Auditor told the Premier of Ontario: ‘You've got to stop the Price Waterhouse thing, it is excessive, I'll be doing that work anyway.’

But it was McGuinty – the Premier Liberal Liar of Ontario – who made the promise, then decided to walk away from it, hoping no-one would notice – and when we did notice, the Lousy Lying Liberal Scumbag blames someone else for making him cancel his own promised investigation!

You want Liberal health care accountability? You want transparency? You want openness in government? You won’t find it in Dalton McGuinty’s ideological single-payer monopoly. All the Liberals do is hide from scrutiny - just look at secretive MPP Jim Bradley: (http://rightinniagara.blogspot.com/2009/06/obstructionist-liberal-mpp-jim-bradley.html)!

The Liberals try to avoid, cover-up, postpone, or control, any attempts at investigation of their role in mismanaging their health care monopoly.

The point is that McGuinty and his Liberals have done FLICK all about McCarter’s previous reports (see:http://rightinniagara.blogspot.com/2007/12/ontario-liberals-cant-measure-hospital.html) which lambasted McGuinty’s handling of his health monopoly. McGuinty and his lying Liberals can ignore any reports they so choose – be it coroner, auditor or ombudsman.

McGuinty should have fired Caplan... (see:http://rightinniagara.blogspot.com/2009/06/caplan-rewarded-for-liberal-ehealth.html) ...as soon as the Liberal government's eHealth scandal was revealed. McGuinty lied to Ontarians when he told us then, that the 'buck stops' with him; and now: we see McGuinty has lied... (see:http://rightinniagara.blogspot.com/2009/05/liberals-lies-and-health-care-shuffle.html) ... AGAIN!

Typical Liberals.