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Ireland is the only EU country not to offer digital health records but a HIQA survey has found the public wants this to change.
Ireland is trudging behind in the health digitisation field, being the only EU country not to offer patients the option to view their health data online through a portal.
The European Commission’s 2024 E-health Indicator Study shows that Ireland is in the beginner category along with Romania and Czechia in terms of enabling citizen access to health data electronically.
Ireland’s overall e-health maturity score was 11pc compared to Belgium’s 100pc, and Denmark and Estonia’s 98pc.
The study found that Ireland fares poorly in most categories when compared to the EU average, with information such as e-prescriptions, test results and reports among many other factors being mostly unavailable to the public online.
Patients in Ireland can access their data only through traditional means, including through a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) request, a data access request or a subject access request (SAR) with the exception of a few things they can access though a native app.
However, Ireland’s new Health Information bill, approved by Government and published in July 2024, aims to digitise healthcare data.
The new bill seeks to provide patients with easier access to their own health information and provide healthcare professionals with greater access to patient records using a secure, open-source platform.
Public want e-health
Recently, Ireland’s Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) surveyed more than 3,000 people including members of the public and healthcare professionals. The survey focused on two e-health areas, digitisation of records and digitalisation of care.
The results showed that 91pc of the public and 88pc of professionals think that people will be better informed if they have access to their health records.
The survey also found that the public feel ready to engage with health and social care services digitally and online records would make practical tasks such as renewing prescriptions or tracking progress of tests easier.
However, 32pc professionals felt that the public may not be ready for this shift. Many reported concern that digital relationships with patience may disimprove care.
Deirdre Hyland, programme manager for HIQA, said that healthcare professionals were concerned that they might lose the relationships with their patients.
“They were concerned that maybe if everything was digital you might lose something from the doctor-patient relationship or the nurse-patient relationship,” she said.
Virtual wards and care via home through remote monitors were also points that were surveyed, and “professionals were very comfortable with text messages, emails, telephone conversations, remote monitoring and virtual wards”, said Hyland.
IT support vital
Of the more than 1,000 healthcare professionals surveyed, 54pc thought that a lack of IT skills among patients will be a challenge. Healthcare workers themselves also felt the need for adequate technical training and support. More than 80pc expressed a need for training in digital tools.
Conduct on medical note-taking is also a factor professionals expressed concerns about. A professional told HIQA: “There would have to be some kind of formal mandatory training for healthcare professionals on how to conduct themselves on note-taking.”
“The benefit of where we’re at is that we’re learning from other countries who have done this already,” Hyland said. She hopes that Ireland can “maybe avoid some of the mistakes some countries have experienced”.
“There’s a clear plan for the next six years from a policy point of view and from a service delivery point of view around the use of the most modern technologies in terms of the healthcare system in Ireland.”
HIQA’s findings will be used by the Department of Health and the Health Service Executive (HSE) to develop digital health services in Ireland.
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