US$8.5 Million For Digitised Integrated Health Information System

The Government is investing US$8.5 million in a digitised integrated health information system.

Making his contribution to the 2021/22 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives recently, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, informed that the process has started and is intended to provide a modern and integrated digital healthcare system.

“Essentially, health care is going digital…It’s about reduction of transaction time and cost for the benefit of the Jamaican people and that is what the health information system will do,” he said.

Dr. Tufton noted too, that a multi-stakeholder National Health Information System Committee has been formed.

“We are advanced with this as we are just about to sign a contract through the government procurement process with a provider to install hardware for the networking of the institutions. We are starting with three hospitals and nine or twelve health centres. We are linking the hospitals to the health centres within that particular area,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Tufton informed that the Ministry is now in the process of identifying a vendor to gradually roll  out home care and telemedicine.

He said the Ministry has also successfully implemented a tele-echo programme to train healthcare professionals on best practices in chronic care.

“We have already trained over 1,000 health care workers in this area. We are preparing our healthcare workers for the next generation and for the future,” the Minister noted.