[LINK] Telecoms 'virtually a complete failure in remote areas'

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

At 12:54 PM 3/07/2007, Glen rightly writes:

> acute care isn't the issue in regional Australia.. It's specialist
> diagnosis and treatment consultations, psychological evaluations
> and care ...   Best wishes, Glen

Remote e-health project lag
Karen Dearne | July 03, 2007 (snip) 
<http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22006091-16123,00.html>

MEDICAL teams in the Northern Territory will struggle with a lack of
clinical IT systems and Internet access to support the remote children's
health initiative.

Federal and NT Government projects are yet to deliver a reliable
information and communications network, despite years of work
and millions of dollars in funding. 

NT Health has been working on its Primary Care Information System
(PCIS) for almost 10 years. It is believed to have cost about $60 million
to date and is yet to be available in the territory's health clinics. 

According to the latest Census, there are more than 190,000 NT residents,
including almost 54,000 Aboriginal and TS Island people, who frequently
live in remote locations ..

Lack of infrastructure for health data networks and limited access to 
bandwidth have also been identified as problems for fly-in, fly-out
medical teams. 

Telecoms analyst Paul Budde said the federal Government's competition
regime had been "virtually a complete failure in remote areas". 

"Telstra is by far the dominant provider throughout the NT. Of 318
communities with a population greater than 20, some 12 per cent have
access to ISDN, and 11 per cent have access to mobile telephony,"
--

Cheers, people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia