Health minister Dr. Frank Announced that Guyana’s Ministry of Health is moving towards a system of electronic medical records (EMR). The transition to EMR, entails designing the system itself, digitising the medical records of patients and entering those records into the system, and, at the same time, creating the legal and legislative framework to support the system.
The minister said that an EMR system would make healthcare delivery more efficient by reducing waiting time among numerous other advantages. Minister Anthony added that the system should be operational by October 2023.
The minister explained that, “There are numerous advantages to going to an electronic system. One, we can be able to store large amounts of data, retrieve it, readily and have all the patients’ records in one place, but it’s also very convenient for both patient, doctors, medical staff and so forth.
“What we envisage with such a system is that the patient when coming to the doctor, records will be available to that person, and if they go to the lab and they do a lab test, they don’t have to go back to the lab for the results. Those results would be integrated into their patient records. If they go do an x-ray or a CT scan, that imaging would also be integrated into the patient’s records, so when you go to visit your doctor all your information is available,” the minister said.
Minister Anthony, in a separate statement addressed the issue of legislation to support an EMR system.
Dr. Anthony said, one of the things that we’ve already started working on is to make sure that by some time next year, we’ll be able to pass the relevant laws to allow for digital or electronic record systems but to also create the legislative environment to ensure that these records and people’s information are kept safe.”
The minister said that healthcare professionals will be trained to use the system. He emphasised that such training will include matters of patients’ privacy and safety.
The health minister said that the implementation of an EMR system is part of government’s holistic approach towards improving the quality of healthcare delivery in Guyana.
