Sir, – The recent finding of patient records in bogs and elsewhere is a timely reminder that secure electronic records would not only provide better patient care, but also safeguard patient confidentiality.
It is time that consideration be given to the establishment of a nationwide secured electronic database of patients’ records. As we already have electronic databases of the dead in the Census 1901 and 1911, the taxpayers at Revenue and the unemployed at the Department of Social Protection, is it not time to secure the health of the living? – Yours, etc,