Robert@PNG

Around the middle of last year a Budget workshop was facilitated for Hospital management by the CEO and a two staff from the National Department of Health (NDOH) from Moresby. The workshop was held at the Conference Center at the University of Goroka (UOG) over a three day period.

The main purpose of the workshop was to assist Hospital's around PNG with the transition to an Activity based Budget model, one that is based on projects and plans rather than the traditional approach of being allocated the same as last year with a few extra bucks thrown in.

As part of this transition Department Manager's were asked required to prepare three year Activity and Service improvement plans together with cost estimates for related work and projects. The Hospital would then consolidate all of these plans into a combined Activity and Service improvement plan for the whole Hospital.

The whole exercise, in my opinion, a total waste of time. In the end and after much work by  all parties, the whole  effort was ditched by NDOH and Hospitals reverted back to the old Budget model - you get the same as last year with a few extra bucks thrown in.

The bottom line… there is no IT Budget for 2008!!

Nevertheless, the workshop itself was a great opportunity to have a few days out of the office and to some networking with Hospital colleagues. The food was OK and the views from UOG are spectacular!

The workshop was three hours late in starting, due to the late arrival of facilitators, so I took the opportunity to snap a few “stills” of some of the other Hospital staff. These photos have now been posted to the “Budget Workshop (2007)” photo album.