Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
2014. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health if he will provide an update on project six of the Sláintecare Action Plan 2022, implementing the eHealth programme; the status of quarterly deliverables; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44073/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraImplementing the eHealth programme under Sláintecare is long term programme of work and the HSE has operational responsibility for the implementation of eHealth initiatives across the public health service.
A number of important milestones were reached in the first 7 months of 2022 in relation to delivering the eHealth programme under Sláintecare. The ePharmacy programme, an important element of the overall eHealth programme, reached an important milestone with the establishment of the clinical leads and associated programme governance groups. Programme boards for important projects within the ePharmacy programme, such as ePrescribing for the community, development of the National Medicinal Product Catalogue to provide a standard coding system for meds and instructions, and the replacement of hospital pharmacy systems, are all now in place with business cases and funding at various stages of approval.
A Government Memo seeking approval to prepare General Scheme of a Health Information Bill was approved in April and a General Scheme for a Health Information Bill is being prepared.
Formal market soundings, to identify a system suitable for the management of patients in the community healthcare settings was completed in May. This system will enable healthcare professionals and staff working outside of the acute healthcare setting to share health information about their patients with others who are also responsible for caring for those patients. It is also an essential building block towards delivering more integrated care as ultimately data will be able to follow the patient as they transition between healthcare settings.
Since the cyberattack in May 2021, the HSE have made significant changes and taken key steps to implement tactical recommendations to increase cyber resilience. Globally, cyberattacks have increases in frequency since the pandemic so a sustained commitment to investment for cyber resilience is required.
Following an extensive and open procurement process, in July of this year a Government decision was made to contract for an enterprise level Electronic Health Record (EHR) system for the New Children’s Hospital was approved and contracts were subsequently signed with EPIC.
