THE HEALTH SYSTEM has yet to reach the “starting line” in developing a digital system to record patient charts, despite plans being lodged in 2018, an Oireachtas committee heard today.

Chief Information Officer with the HSE Fran Thompson told members of the Joint Committee on Health that the health service is being held back with inefficient, and often paper based, patient interactions.

An electronic health record (EHR) is a real-time, digital version of a patient’s chart designed to make information available instantly and securely to the authorised user.

Thomas outlined that approval was sought for the development of a national electronic health record programme in 2018, which was deferred by the Department of Public Expenditure in 2019.

Responding to a query from Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan, Thompson outlined that the development of the system was designed to be linked with the opening of the new National Children’s Hospital, which has experienced lengthy delays.

He said that until the programme plan was approved, the HSE could not continue with its development.

“To get to the starting line, we have to go through the approvals process,” he said.

“We can’t implement something we don’t have approval for.

In an ideal world we would have been allowed to proceed, but we’re not. We are where we are as a result of that.”

It was agreed that the committee would write to Government to request further insight as to why the plans were not approved in 2018.

EHRs have already been implemented in a small number of hospitals across the country, including St James’ and four maternity hospitals, but a nationwide programme has yet to be rolled out.

The delay in the development of the system sparked criticism from committee members.

Fianna Fáil TD Cathal Crowe said that it is an “awful indictment” that the NCT’s digital record of the condition of cars in the country is more effective than that of our public health.

He said: “It’s wrong that there is more known about scooters, cars, trucks and vans than there is about our personal health.”

Resignation 

Today’s discussion followed the resignation of the HSE’s head of digital transformation Prof Martin Curley earlier this week.

In a post on LinkedIn, Curley compared the job to scaling Mount Everest.

He later told RTÉ Radio 1’s Drivetime that he did not believe the health service was fit for purpose.

In response to a question about Curley’s comments, Thompson said that the HSE has a vision “to provide connected and complete digital patient records across all patient pathways and care settings” and is working to achieve that.

Cyber security

Thompson also told the committee that the health system has “totally recovered” from the cybersecurity attack of May 2021.

He told the committee that 48,000 cyber alerts were recorded in the last year, some of which could be an attack, but all threats were stopped.

Over 1,000 cases were investigated and 200 were significant potential attacks.

He also said that there was no link between the 2021 cyber attack and people getting ‘fake texts’ from the HSE.