Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 315: To ask the Minister for Health and Children her views on the role of information technology in the health services here; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35756/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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By any standards the HSE is a very large organisation with total staffing of around 120,000 and a budget of over €12 billion. Such an organisation cannot function without sophisticated ICT systems. These systems need to cover areas such as personnel, payroll, purchasing and accounts. I acknowledge that there has been some public concern in relation to some of these systems in the HSE and with PPARS in particular. I am anxious to improve the governance of ICT within the Health Service Executive and I have written to the Chairman asking him to ensure that the matter is resolved as quickly as possible.

Apart from these business applications ICT has the potential to make hospitals and other health service settings safer and more efficient. It also makes health services management and delivery more efficient and effective. In my view ICT alone will not achieve this but it cannot be achieved without ICT. The over-riding purpose of ICT in health care should be the bringing of information to the point where it is required to support decision making and the most effective and reliable means of collecting health information is to generate it as a by-product of other health related processes, be they clinical or administrative.

Some concerns have been expressed about the confidentiality of electronic health records but ICT can increase the privacy and confidentiality of patients records by controlling and tracking who has access to them. One of the key issues in modern health care can be the availability of key critical information to the doctor at the point of care and sophisticated ICT systems are required to provide this. I do acknowledge that developing, implementing and using electronic patient records is a slow and complex process but the benefits can be considerable, especially in terms of reducing errors and improving the quality of care.