Sir, – Dr David Tansey makes excellent sense in his letter (January 18th). The four areas that he suggests – the rollout of a national universal electronic patient records in every hospital, a national universal patient identifier for every patient, a national universal radiology and bloods system for every HSE hospital, and a national universal payroll system for the entirety of the HSE – are so obvious that most readers will be surprised to learn that they still need to be addressed at all in the third decade of the 21st century!
The easiest of these would appear to be the setting up of a national universal payroll system for the entire HSE. It seems so unbelievably cumbersome that when an employee moves from one hospital to another, they effectively change employers with all the red tape and delays this process involves. Teachers, for example, are officially employed by their board of management or vocational education board but are paid by the Department of Education electronically and have been for many years. It seems incredible that the HSE, with a budget of in excess of €23 billion, cannot set up and manage IT systems which would improve the health outcomes of patients and look after the efficient payment of its employees. – Yours, etc,
BEN DUNDON,
Dublin 24.
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Sir, – The resignation of Prof Martin Curley as director of digital transformation and open innovation at the HSE highlights the failure of the HSE to devise a digital system which allows hospitals and primary care clinics to share medical records easily and efficiently (Shauna Bowers, “HSE’s head of digital innovation resigns citing ‘frustrations’”, News, January 17th).
Some commentators have blamed this failure on difficulties around data privacy.
To speak of privacy and hospitals in the same breath is hilarious. Anyone who has spent time in an emergency department knows that sometimes there is just a flimsy curtain between one patient and another and sometimes not even that. The most intimate details are revealed to people on nearby trolleys and sometimes to the entire ward, if a person is hard of hearing.
Admittedly it is fascinating to hear and helps to make the hours waiting for a bed pass more quickly. – Yours, etc,
GEMMA McCROHAN,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – Peter Declan O’Halloran (Letters, January 18th) essentially asks if the HSE is top-heavy with management, why it is accused of a lack of leadership? I once believed management and leadership to be the same thing, as I similarly once conflated the law and justice. While related, experience has taught me that management and leadership are fundamentally different animals. A horse of a different kettle of fish? – Yours, etc,
GERRY CHRISTIE,
Tralee,
Co Kerry.