Staff at Sligo hospital still using paper records as HSE has made no progress on digitising files

By Philip Rooney, The Sligo Champion

The issue of digitised health records came before the October meeting of Sligo County Council with elected representatives hearing there have been cases of theatre appointments being cancelled because a patients medical charts can’t be found.

In his motion Cllr Thomas Walsh called on Sligo County Council to “request an update from the HSE and the Minister for Health on when all healthcare facilities in Sligo, including Sligo University Hospital, will use digitised health records as set out under Ireland’s digital health strategy Digital for Care: A Digital Health Framework for Ireland 2024-2030.

Cllr Walsh said there are 18 members of staff “doing a huge amount of work on a daily basis” but “little to no progress” has been made in terms of completing the mammoth task of digitising the paper files.

"It is still the case in University Hospital Sligo that we are still using paper files. We have 18 staff doing huge work on a daily basis in medical records and we have made little or no progress with transferring these medical records under the HSE’s own strategy.”

Cllr Walsh expressed doubts the project will be completed within the timeframe outlined saying, “To be quite frank, I’m not sure this is deliverable before 2030. We have situations where charts are pulled for clinics and charts can go missing. In some cases theatre has been cancelled, anti-natal appointments have been cancelled because charts can’t be found for the patient. If the charts can’t be found then medical treatment won’t be provided.”

"There are so many advantages to investing in digitising records, we are so far off that point. The whole point is to have an integrated health record.

"It is a really poor summary of a performance that lacks investment. I am really disappointed that we haven’t invested at the rate we should be in terms of digital healthcare. I am calling on the HSE and our five Oireachtas members to ensure we have investment in these services across the county of Sligo. The current system is not efficient, it does not work well.”

Cllr Michael Clarke voiced his support for the motion saying he has been informed that, “If a patient has to move from Sligo to Beaumont for example, it could take three hours to get the files ready.”

Cllr Edel McSharry also spoke in favour of the motion saying, “We are about 40 years behind in terms of digital records. The GPs have digital records but they don’t interact.”