Dr. Matthew Sadlier:

It depends on the section. I could provide a very long answer to this question but I will be very quick. Ultimately, we need a single integrated system across all hospital sites. Individual hospitals with individual systems that do not integrate do not provide value for the overall system. By the nature of our health system, most patients go to more than one institution for their healthcare, depending on the specialty they require or the problem they have. The maternity hospitals are a great example, particularly in Dublin which has stand-alone maternity hospitals.

There is a very good point to those maternity hospitals having a system for themselves, but when those patients have another health problem that is not related to their pregnancy or childbirth and they go to one of the public hospitals, if the information digitally recorded in the maternity hospital cannot follow the patient to the other hospital, it is underutilisation of a system.