Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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168. To ask the Minister for Health the schedule for full implementation of the eHealth programme; the proposed funding allocation to ensure this happens; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49810/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Government published a strategy for eHealth in December 2013 that outlined a programme of work to underpin and develop eHealth delivery within the Irish health system. Significant developments have taken place over the last 3 years to improve the capacity of the health system to move to a digital environment. New strategic systems are being put in place such as the new medical laboratory platform known as MedLIS, the continued roll out of the national radiology solution NIMIS, the eReferrals initiative in primary care and the Maternal and New Born System which is transforming the delivery of maternity care and has gone live in both Cork (2016) and Kerry (2017) and most recently in the Rotunda Hospital over last weekend.

I also welcome the recognition of the priority required for investment in the EHR Programme in the Sláintecare Report which recommended “continued strong support of the e-health strategy - particularly ensuring the necessary funding for timely roll-out of the EHR system" and advancement in eHealth will be considered as part of the implementation response to Sláintecare, currently being developed by my Department.

The scale of the task to implement a national electronic health record programme is very large, challenging and requires a complex planning, approval and tendering process. The EHR business case, which has been developed by the HSE, highlights a number of optional timescales and investment approaches for implementation and roll-out including a 5 year and a 9 year technology investment programme.

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) has 4 main elements - the Shared Care Record, the Community & Primary Care EHR, the Acute Operational EHR and the EHR integration suite. The HSE appointed a programme manager to oversee the implementation of the Electronic Health Record in May 2017. The next phase of the EHR programme is to develop detailed business cases for each of the components including specification of requirements, procurement documentation and support during the procurement process. The HSE sought and received conditional sanction from the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure to procure additional services to further develop the business case in preparation for submission for permission to tender. Tenders sanctioned are for the delivery of support in the following areas:

1. programme office,

2. acute EHR,

3. community EHR and

4. Shared Care Record and Integration.

The tender documents were published in August and the tender process closed mid-September. To date, one contract for this work has been awarded for the acute hospital EHR in view of the requirements for the National Children's Hospital. In the case of the other two lots, a re-tendering exercise is underway. The outputs from this work will allow greater clarity on the scope of the individual components for what is being procured and the detailed costings for each of the areas that will make up the electronic health care record. Only when this detailed work is completed can the procurement process be considered for submission to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and prioritisation assigned to the work. The work in relation to EHR will continue and feed into the implementation response to the Sláintecare report being prepared by my Department.

ICT Capital allocation in the HSE has grown from a low base in 2012 of €22m to €55m in 2017. The Government has committed to increase ICT capital spending over the next four years for the HSE with an indicative capital allocation of €60m in 2018, €85m in 2019, €100m in 2020 and €120m in 2021 to support eHealth, in the context of the Mid-Term Capital Review. Provision of revenue funding to support ICT has also increased in recent years and sanction for 49 additional posts was granted in 2016. For a programme of this scale and scope, realistic timescales and funding options are important to ensure that the adoption of both the technology and the business change required by front line staff can be absorbed and managed in a coherent way.