Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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2086. To ask the Minister for Health if she will implement a modern, high-quality IT system that can transfer patient charts and information between hospitals, including community hospitals; if such a system will also be rolled out to GPs, consultants and so on (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19192/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Digital for Care: A Digital Health Framework for Ireland 2024-2030 (Department of Health, published in May 2024) reflects the changing landscape of health and social care in Ireland and sets out a roadmap to digitally transform health services and improve access for patients.

The Programme for Government both underlines and commits to the ambition set out in the Framework to continue to work towards the full digitisation of Irish healthcare records and information systems, and to increase funding levels, through the NDP Review, to achieve this.

Ireland needs one digital health record for every citizen that can be accessed by health professionals across the service. The path to a one digital health record that covers the full health journey of every person living in Ireland consists of three key initiatives proceeding concurrently and in parallel to achieve this.

Digital for Care proposed a stepwise approach to the delivery of digital health records for all. Through the delivery of the Health App, National Shared Care Record and procurement of an Enterprise Electronic Health Record system that spans acute and community healthcare sectors, with the necessary investment, we can make significant, visible, and tangible progress towards this objective.

We are already making good progress. The first public release of the HSE Health App was launched on 25th February 2025, with further updates planned regularly on the Apple and Android App stores. The App is the first step towards enabling patient access to their own health information online, with more features and health information provided over 2025 including visibility of hospital appointments and prescriptions etc. In the coming years, additional functionality and data will be provided in the App, with a focus on enhancing patient access to their own health data, user engagement and leveraging technology for better healthcare outcomes.

Separately, the national shared care record (NSCR) technology platform has been procured. The NSCR will combine data from multiple source systems (e.g. GP practice systems, community pharmacy systems, hospital administration systems, laboratory systems, diagnostic imaging systems, referrals, discharge reports etc). The unique feature of a national shared care record is that it can combine data from the acute and community healthcare setting – including relevant GP and community pharmacy data – to deliver a concise summary of patient information and present it as one unified digital health record. This is a multiannual programme that will include more data as this becomes available. The initial version of the national shared care record will be built and configured in 2025, with a first release expected by the end of Q4. The task of building and testing the national shared care record is a significant undertaking, technically and operationally.

To address this deficiency and enable digitisation of the health system and delivery of complete and comprehensive digital heath records, the Digital for Care strategy proposes the procurement and deployment of an enterprise Electronic Health Record (EHR) system that spans the acute and community sector. It recommends proceeding with a structured, planned and resourced ‘stepwise’ approach to the delivery of these systems, procured nationally but delivered regionally.

With this enterprise EHR systems in place and linked to the NSCR, the role of the NSCR will be to connect data from systems outside the scope of the enterprise EHRs e.g. GP systems, community pharmacy systems and data from private healthcare providers. This approach is typical when compared to many other countries.

Together, the deployment of the HSE Health App, National Shared Care Record and future investment in enterprise level EHR systems will result in a complete digital health record of a patient’s health journey and ensure ‘data can follow the patient’ leading to a more joined up ‘healthcare journey’ for the patient, whilst providing healthcare professionals with access to the data they need, where and when they need it, to safely and effectively care for their patients. This reflects this Government’s commitment to invest in and continue the digitalisation of Irish healthcare records and information systems and wider health digitalisation and to use digital to meaningfully enable delivery of Integrated Care.