Sir, – We read with great interest Simon Carswell’s piece “Electronic health records: State has ‘huge mountain to climb’ to meet EU target” (News, August 24th) which outlined the Health Information and Quality Authority’s report on the collection, use and sharing of health and social care information.
As outlined in HIQA’s report, our experiences of the Covid-19 pandemic, the recent monkeypox pandemic and the cyberattack on the HSE have reinforced the fact that existing health information systems in Ireland are immature or entirely absent in some cases. This places Ireland as an outlier among other OECD nations. It substantially limits our ability to produce real-time data to inform decision-making at policy level as well as at the level of patient care. The resultant lack of coordination across services and across sites in the country leads to enormous inefficiencies by creating duplication and hiding gaps, and risks the health of patients. It fails to provide patients with access to their health information in a timely manner, hinders collaborative and timely research, as well as the translation of that research into practice to improve health and wellbeing.
For these reasons, the Irish Society of Specialists in Public Health Medicine wholeheartedly supports the recommendations included in HIQA’s report and calls on the Government to introduce them without delay so we can provide more effective patient care as well as be more prepared for the next public health emergency. – Yours, etc,
Dr DOUGLAS HAMILTON,
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Irish Society of Specialists
in Public Health Medicine,
Banagher,
Co Offaly.