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David Caplan, Canadian Health Minister, Quits on Eve of Report

by Amy Judd | October 6, 2009 at 02:16 pm

276 views | 22 Recommendations | 2 comments

David Caplan, the Canadian Health Minister has quit on the eve of a report that addresses the spending amounts at a health agency tasked with creating electronic health records of patients.

The Liberals have not confirmed the Minister has quit, but sources told the Canadian Press that he had handed his resignation to Dalton McGuinty.

A spokesman said only that McGuinty will offer the government's reaction to the eHealth report Wednesday at a news conference that was originally scheduled to be Caplan's event.

The same sources are saying that he quit because of what the report contains, which is expected to reveal that Ontario spent over $1 billion in the last 10 years trying to create the electronic health records.

Opposition has been calling for his resignation since details surfaced about millions of dollars overspent in his department that have not been attributed to a specific need or shown to have made any results.

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Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 14:31 on October 6th, 2009

$1 Billion for establishing electronic health records seems excessive. You would think that everyone that is covered under the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) would already be in a database.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 14:41 on October 6th, 2009

Canadian Press reported that Mr. Caplan tendered his resignation to Premier Dalton McGuinty on Tuesday, one day before Auditor-General Jim McCarter releases a report into the $1-billion the province has spent developing digital medical records with little to show for it.

Officials in the Premier's office and Mr. Caplan's did not immediately return telephone messages.

The report makes it clear that the practices that embroiled eHealth Ontario in scandal this summer were also widespread within Ontario's Health Ministry. The Globe and Mail reported this week that the ministry has for years been awarding contracts to consultants without seeking competitive bids, according to sources familiar with the auditor's report.