DIGITAL MOVE

Barbados gets $8.8 million for digitisation of health information management systems By Sheria Brathwaite The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the European Union (EU) are helping Barbados fast-track the digitisation of the country’s health information management systems, which will feature enhanced cybersecurity. The assistance is coming through a grant agreement signed on Wednesday by Prime Minister Mia Mottley who said it was imperative that every patient has access to a modern and seamless healthcare experience. She acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic caused some setbacks in the digitisation process. “COVID-19, while it reinforced the need for digital transformation, caused us to have to pause because we also had to reallocate funds to other areas and therefore there was a slowing in the ability to do the transition as we would like. We, however, are picking up pace again . . . ,” she said during the signing ceremony at Government Headquarters. “The Government is also addressing the issue of cyber security, recognising that that is going to be a perpetual and continuous battle because as you start here, people will always find ways to be able to do the hacking that we have. “The area that gives me the greatest concern is us being able to transition the health sector and also the human resources sector of Government and those are the two that we are working on now, assiduously,” she added. Mottley said the software currently used in the medical sector was outdated and efforts were being made to ensure there was a central software system that each public or private medical practitioner could access and cross-reference. “The reality is that in the health sector, the software that had been purchased when we came to office between the QEH [Queen Elizabeth Hospital] and the polyclinics, the software did not talk to each other and, therefore, the investments made in those pieces of software, in some instances millions of dollars, are of no use to the country,” she disclosed. The EU through the IDB has granted the Government US$4.4 million (BDS$8.8 million). Mottley said the money will be coupled with funds from a loan the EU gave Barbados during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She did not disclose the dollar value of that loan but said the interest rate was 1.4 per cent, it was a five-year moratorium arrangement, and Barbados has 20 years to repay. Even though she said the money from both sources would help Barbados advance its goal, the Prime Minister said it still was not enough to see the entire digitisation plan materialise. “We are hopeful that in the EU loan . . . that we will be able to have the health information management system that will ensure that all medical facilities in Barbados, public and private, can talk with each other. “This grant, therefore, is the architecture that will allow us to get to that stage because the cost of a health information management system, as much as I would like to believe that it can be covered by the grant, can nowhere come close to being covered by the grant. “The grant complements the work that we’re also going to be doing in a loan that we’re getting to cover the health information management system,” Mottley said. The IDB’s representative to Barbados Viviana del Carmen Alva Hart said the grant money will go toward providing new computer systems and help reinforce cyber security, adding that the personal data of patients will be handled with the utmost strict and rigorous international standards. “We expect that this programme in general will contribute to safer, most effective and timely patient care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital,” she added. Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Wellness with Responsibility for the QEH Dr Sonia Browne said the funds will go a long way in improving patient care. “The Queen Elizabeth Hospital has been inundated with requests from patients for best service which included the Records Department and getting their appointments sorted. The computers will certainly go a long way and we’re looking forward to the collaboration between the polyclinics and the Queen Hospital in terms of sharing of information [and] once the legislation is in place, information will be shared with the health professional and the patient,” she said. “[As it relates to] the cyber security issue which we experienced last year, all of these will go a long way. I’ve noticed that there will be training involved with this whole programme and the staff at the hospital will indeed be grateful for it. “We are behind as a country in terms of data for the medical services and we really can’t proceed with proper medical care without the data to back it, so all of this will come in helpful,” said Dr Browne. sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb ]]>