Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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518. To ask the Minister for Health if consideration will be given to providing a standardised approach to electronic hospital discharges on a nationwide basis, to be delivered using health-mail which is a secure email source to dramatically improve patient care which would lead to many efficiencies, both within hospitals and the community. [46996/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Developing a standardised approach to the provision of electronic discharges is something the department is considering and indeed has engaged with the HSE on as part of the Sláintecare programme. There are some sites that already issue discharges electronically - some are simple notifications of discharge whilst others are full discharge notes. Bringing more consistency to the discharge process and associated discharge notes (including clear information on medications) is recognised as a patient safety issue which also enables better continuity of care between the acute and community health settings. Whether 'Healthmail' (which was used to good effect during to pandemic to enable the electronic transfer of prescriptions from GPs to community pharmacy), 'Healthlink' (used for electronic referrals and in many electronic discharge solutions today), or some other technical solution for sending the discharge is not the key issue - the challenge is improving the current discharge process and bringing some consistency to that across all departments in all hospitals before overlaying the technology. If the former is not done first, then we will continue to see inconsistency in terms of the content and layout of information provided when patients are discharged from hospital. The Department will continue to engage with the HSE in relation to this topic, in the context of Sláintecare health service reform, better integrated care, patient safety and the eHealth agenda.