The other e-health scandal

Don’t worry, Ontario: B.C.’s in the same boat

Another province, another scandal breaking around government attempts to create a system of electronic health-care records. Two senior B.C. health bureaucrats are on the hot seat after a stunning series of revelations suggesting they and their family members have been taking favours from a Fraser Valley doctor selling software to health authorities. Police are also investigating allegations the civil servants were planning to take cash kickbacks from the physician. E-health: West Coast edition features many of the issues at the centre of the Ontario scandal. What it lacks is the element of a nervous premier trying to get ahead of the bad news. Indeed, Gordon Campbell’s government seemed to be hoping the whole ugly business would go away after the press got a whiff of it earlier in the summer. Instead, the RCMP read about it in the papers and decided to investigate. Uh oh.

The Province

tags:Canada