Poor implementation of health info system cost lives: NGO

In a complaint to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), Jayaram Venkatesan, convenor of the organisation, said the tender for selection of a system integrator for Health Management Information System was floated in 2017 by the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation. But the tender was won as a single tender, which is a violation of the Tender Transparency Act, 1998, and the orders of the Supreme Court.

The objective of the software is to make clinical data available for rapid interventions in case of epidemics and or epidemiological study, and maintaining real-time data on human resources and inventory of infrastructure and equipment.

“Until this date, there has been no output from the company, leading to heavy loss for the general public and frontline workers. The order for payment of Rs 4.5 crore by the Health Secretary 10 days before the election was a financial loss to the exchequer, as the claimed percentage of completion of software was entirely false,” Jayaram Venkatesan said.

The complaint also pointed out that there was a loss of several services such as patients’ integrated health record, information to doctors about patients’ health history, information of drugs and other infrastructure, and others.

He urged the DVAC to immediately register an FIR against public servants and directors of Oasys Cybernetics Pvt Ltd, apart from terminating the tender and blacklisting the firm.