[ILUG] Open source software in Irish hospitals?

[ilug at another.com]

Quoting: olearypj at rte.ie

>Quoting Philip Creevy <tiger98 at iol.ie>:
>
>> Beaumont is presently running Staroffice7 on NT4
>> and are testing FC1 for all of its desktops
>> 
>> Philip
>
>> -- 
>> Philip Creevy <tiger98 at iol.ie>
>> 
>> -- 
>> Irish Linux Users' Group
>> http://www.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug/
>> 
>> 
> Yes, they have been running Staroffice since ver5.2 on
NT4, 
> CUPS print servers, MySQL databases, OTRS help desk,
Nagios 
> to monitor the network,iamge database, LDAP, & are at the 
> moment nearly ready to roll out a Linux desktop from Sun. 
> After much wrestling with it, they eventualy got WINE to
run 
> some apps. to run on the new Linux desktop.

I've heard that they no longer run the opensource version of
Staroffice, and buy the pay for version from Sun at a
knocked down price in return for PR, and their faith in
opensource desktop application is such that they might
consider touching OpenOffice if they ever find one of them
ten foot poles.

> As you may have guessed I had the PLEASURE of working with
> Tony's gang for about 9 months on the project.

Maybe you can confirm how they manage to run their, what is
it now, 1000 pc's on a network infrastructure that would
make any of the mainstream datacenters in this country look
weak, outdated, and under-resourced, and still, they run the
thing in a manner where their network is stretched. I've
only heard this third hand, but I'm lead to believe that
they've managed to cripple fiber's bandwidth capacity. Maybe
Microsoft is funding their open source implementation,
there's a sure fire way to tarnish the open source story....
that net will fall!

> BTW, Tallaght Hospital are running an application written
by 
> the IT Dept. in
> Beaumont Hospital.
> So, watch this space, 

This is the most outstanding bit of the Beaumont story. I've
heard that they have over thirty software developers working
full time in the hospital. So the new public health IT
strategy is, I can't get budget for computer software, so
instead I hire a small army of software developers under the
HR dept's budget, and have them work on building software
instead. Bad enough that they're doing that, but they should
be keeping their mouths shut. Probably why they never post
here, and reserve their fuzzy non-specific comments for
shows.

If that is true, then that developer team is larger than
what is in a lot of Irish software firms, and they're not
even in a software firm. How many less nurses are in that
hospital because the HR resources are being pumped into
software development. That has got to be a more expensive
option than purchasing proprietary software, and without the
risk mitigation. That goes against all that is enshrined in
the Revenue Commissioner's public procurement procedures. If
it is true, then its a bloddy scandal and a pure waste of
tax payers money.

The only light I see in the Tunnel is the fact that Tony is
elevating himself through his PR work. If the stuff I've
heard are true, then we all know where its going to end,
because there is only one way to go after you go up. The sad
part is that it will be an industry story used to beat
opensource software on every project where a commercial
entity wants to get a commercial product in.  As shakespeare
said, methinks dast is fscked up severly.

I coldn't believe my ears when i heard the alleged inside
story of Beaumont, and its opensource campaign, and I've
been following the PR closely ever since. A couple of weeks
back, Tony was quoted in the Sunday Business Post as saying
that through the use of OpenSource software, he was going to
save the hospital 30M. Excuse me, but to save you would have
to have had that budget capacity in the first place. Where
was he going to get 30M, and what exactly was he going to do
with it? build an on site DataCenter? New hospital wing?

He'll be talking.... AGAIN.... at the the ICT Expo next
week, and again, I'll make it my business to be there,
listening, and expand my scrap book on this supposed messed
up project. If only half of the stories are true, then this
will all end in tears.

B.