Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The development of a new Digital Health and Social Care Strategic Framework (2023-2030) is due to be completed in the coming weeks. In parallel, we are collaborating with the Health Service Executive, who will produce a corresponding implementation plan. The framework also aligns with the Government’s digital health strategy “Harnessing Digital”.

The objective of this framework is to provide a ‘north star’ to guide investment in digital health from now to the end of this decade, to ensure maximum benefit to patients and healthcare professionals and to enable those responsible for the management of the health service to do so with better data and greater insights.

The key goal of the framework is to support reform of the health service through streamlined processes, modernisation of patient facing health services and to provide patients and healthcare professionals with access to digital health records with the aim to increase health outcomes for all. The framework puts a greater focus on empowering patients to take greater control of their own health and wellbeing, enabling staff to do their jobs by providing them with digital skills and toolsets in a modern digital environment, investing in core clinical and corporate systems that are joined up, supporting innovation, and ensuring that this is all built on a robust and secure foundation.

The level of investment, expertise and resources needed to implement the new framework and associated implementation plan is expected to be considerable. Significant political support, oversight and governance will be required to successfully deliver on this challenging programme.

Our next steps are to finalise the draft strategic framework and roadmap, to continue engagement with key stakeholders and submit a memo to Government confirming the finalised framework.

Included in the new Digital Health and social care Strategic Framework 2023-2030 and associated implementation plan, is a roadmap which guides the programme of work required to deliver on eHealth initiatives including a national electronic health record. It outlines how digital records will be introduced on a phased basis starting with the roll-out of summary care records, shared cared records and building on both of those initiatives to work towards a national electronic health record.

Our engagement with other countries internationally and those who are considered leaders in digital health and have considerable experience in deploying EHRs, indicate that deploying electronic health records is a complex undertaking that requires enablers including ? clinical leadership, strategy, policy and legislation, robust governance, sustained commitment, significant resources, and expertise in technology.

The rollout of digital health record solutions will complement the existing work being undertaken to progress more extensive EHR deployments such as those at St. James Hospital, our maternity hospitals, the new children’s hospital, the national rehabilitation hospital and the national forensics hospital. Progress has been made to procure a similar solution that is suitable for deployment in the community healthcare setting.

The New Children’s Hospital hospital-wide electronic health record is underway with a contract now in place and staff being recruited to support its roll-out. When complete, this will be the most extensive EHR deployment in Ireland to date. The New Children’s Hospital has been designed as a digital hospital and requires a functional electronic health record as a core element of its operations. The deployment of electronic health records at the New Children’s Hospital builds on the success of other major eHealth programmes such as the EHR deployment at St James Hospital ? the largest acute hospital in Ireland ? which has an electronic health record system in place since 2018 and is now embedded in how care is delivered to patients at St James. With the aim of reducing risk to new-born babies and their mothers, there is now an electronic health record deployed across three major maternity hospitals (plus the maternity unit at University Hospital Kerry), with plans to cover the two remaining large maternity hospital by 2024. By 2024, 70% of babies will have an electronic health record assigned at birth.

Importantly, electronic health record deployments are part of a much wider network of digital health projects, with 700 funded eHealth projects currently underway across acute, community and primary care settings.

The Department of Health is now working closely with the HSE, given the emergence of the Regional Health Areas, to develop a procurement approach, a phased deployment plan and a hosting model, suitable for the deployment of EHRs.