The business case for a national electronic health record (EHR) was recently reviewed by the major project assurance group (MPAG), and updates to the document are currently being undertaken.
Speaking at the HSE Integrated Care Conference 2025 in the Convention Centre, Dublin, in September, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill expressed hope that she would receive the business case imminently.
The HSE board approved the preliminary business case in April. Under the HSE National Service Plan 2025, the Executive has committed to gaining approval for an EHR business case this year and commencing procurement.
A HSE spokesperson told the Medical Independent (MI) that “the next step for a programme of this size” was to be reviewed by the MPAG. This review took place in September.
The MPAG was established by the Government in December 2021 to strengthen project management.
Based on its recommendations, updates to the business case are being undertaken before a memo is drafted for the Government, said the spokesperson.
“Once the MPAG updates are completed, a preliminary business case will be submitted to the Government for approval in principle.”
As previously reported in MI, the HSE Dublin and North East region has been earmarked for the initial roll-out of the EHR. The process of establishing the programme team is in progress in the region, the spokesperson said, with “go-live” planned for mid-2029, subject to approvals.
The EHR business case was discussed at the HSE strategy and reform committee in June. According to minutes, members highlighted the need for “digital literacy in both the workforce and the public” as this would be a key driver for the success of the EHR programme.
The EHR business case was also discussed at a joint meeting of the HSE audit and risk committee and the strategy and reform committee in April.
At the time, members were advised that Ireland is currently ranked as the fifth most advanced digital economy in the EU. However, according to minutes, committee members were also told that Ireland “lags significantly behind in digital health maturity, and ranked last in digital health readiness among developed nations according to the OECD, which highlights a critical area for improvement”.
Committee members welcomed the fact that the EHR sets out to “deliver a unified, lifetime electronic health record that empowers patients and care providers to achieve better health outcomes, enhances quality and safety across all health and social care services, and improves their efficiency and agility”.
The HSE spokesperson also confirmed to this newspaper that a “phased roll-out” of the national shared care record with a limited dataset is due to commence in the fourth quarter of this year.
Implementation will commence within a “representative group of healthcare professionals” in the Waterford and Wexford area, according to the spokesperson.
“This will help inform the national roll-out of the initial dataset, which will take place throughout 2026. In parallel, data from additional sources will be incrementally added to the national shared care record in future releases as it becomes available.”
The aim of the national shared care record is to bring together digitised patient data from various sources, such as hospitals, GP practices, and community care, into a single place, making it available at the point of care. It will provide a ‘read-only’ view of a patient’s health status across healthcare settings to support care transitions through the healthcare system, thereby contributing to the integration of care between acute and community services.
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