Policy Implications
Wakefield Radiology is at the "leading edge" of businesses with a substantiated business case requiring the capabilities of a very high-speed broadband communication system to distribute information between sites. Very few businesses would be generating separate files as large as the images the firm is moving around, or requiring transfers as frequently as this one. The presence of the very high speed and high capacity CityLink network has been a fundamental component of the success of the use of the technology. Without such a service, and its current pricing points, Wakefield Radiology's multi-site practice would most likely be either significantly less profitable or even infeasible. The existing telecommunications policy environment has encouraged the development of multiple infrastructures in high population density areas, with different product offerings. The product offered by CityLink is ideally suited to the type of data transfers required by the firm, and is superior to the TelstraClear link to Johnsonville. Competition between technology platforms has enabled new applications such as the digital imaging transfer to become feasible and, in the CityLink case, ahead of the mainstream telecommunication product offerings.
However, Trevor acknowledges that there is still a problem servicing physically remote locations where limited competition raises the prices of services such as dedicated lines. Initiatives such as Project Probe are unlikely to be of much value to very high speed and volume users such as Wakefield Radiology, who have already tried and rejected wireless technologies for their typical data exchanges. At present, such high intensity users are clustered in a few industries - principally the health sector and the film industry. As Government is the predominant funder of the health sector, the issue is raised whether as an owner of many businesses with the potential or actual use of the same forms of imaging technologies, Government could take a lead role in co-ordinating demand for these services and negotiating with service providers to provide infrastructure in specific locations. The benefits of such an exercise would accrue principally to Government providers, as they are the major providers of the types of services that will generate such high volume information transfers.
Similarly, there is a possible role for Governments with respect to the state of the HealthLink infrastructure linking GP practices into the state of the art medical imaging transfers that Wakefield Radiology and similar practices are offering currently, but with limited effect at the GP level. As the most significant funder of primary health services, and the principal determiner of the priorities to which the limited funds are applied, Government has the ability to increase the likelihood of benefits being accrued by either increasing resources so GP practices can pay for improved services, or by placing a higher priority on the nature of communication between practices. As part of the funding agreement, better and more timely information exchange at all levels of the health sector offer the potential for more speedy diagnoses and commencement of treatment, with consequent improvements in patient outcomes. The challenge is for Government to examine its separate roles as a provider of services and as a funder to identify the most effective policies to enable the full benefits to be gained by New Zealanders from the high technology investments made in both the public and private sectors. In a sector where the predominant product flow is information, and where information exchange between businesses is a significant component of activity, infrastructures to enable information flow are an imperative.
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