Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 April 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Future of Mental Health Care

Mental Health Services: Discussion (Resumed)

1:30 pm

Dr. Aileen Murtagh:

It is a big move from a paper-based system to an electronic health system. It would be difficult to go back now. There were nerves and trepidation but, overall, the transition went smoothly. It saves much clinical time. We are talking about efficiencies and managing our workload more efficiently today. If we have a re-referral, I can, with just a few clicks, get into a young person's file. It saves much time. One is not waiting for charts or for a file to be pulled before returning a phone call to the mother. The other benefit, moving forward, is that we will be able to pull data to determine what the service needs and what the profile of young people is. We will be able to easily pull those data at the end of the year.