The development of a business case for the procurement and implementation of the first of the planned regional electronic health records (EHRs) is underway, with an expected procurement for the first region, Dublin North East, to be concluded next year and the first site in preparation from 2026.
The first of the regional EHRs is projected to cost in excess of €200 million in capital expenditure, with the full programme to cost between €1.5 to €2 billion by the time EHRs are all rolled out across the six regions in seven or eight years.
HSE chief technology and transformation officer (CTTO) Damien McCallion told the HSE national conference in Dublin last month that the EHR project was a big program of work within the Digital for Care 2030 framework and not many digital projects in the history of the state have exceeded it.
In addition to the HSE app, the first iteration of which is due at the end of November, and the tender for the national shared care record, the EHR programme is a fundamental, foundational one for the strategy.
“The first region is Dublin North East and we hope to get the business case through in the early part of next year,” Mr McCallion said. “[We are] looking to get approval, working with [the Department of Health] over the coming months into 2025 and looking to get to tender next year. Clearly, given the scale, that tender will be a big, complex project, but we’re reassigning a lot of resources to that.”
He said he expected the procurement to take about 18 months, considering what other similar projects such as the EHR in Alberta, Canada, and in Northern Ireland have experienced. The HSE EHR team is looking closely at Alberta as its project involved five million people and covered the hospital and community sector for mental health and disability.
Then it will be an expected 20 months for implementation for the first region, he said. “We’ve selected the first regions, and we want to make sure we get it off to the right footing in the right way, with the right leadership and the right people.”
Mr McCallion said that in advance of the procurement, the HSE Technology and Transformation team is working on building up the infrastructure to support the big projects, including big investments in cyber security but also a major enterprise wireless programme.
“By the end of ‘25 – we’ve now set a target that’s going to be a huge ask, but we’re going to do it – which is that all of our health facilities will have WiFi for staff and the public by the end of 2025. You can’t work in that mobile environment unless you have the basics.”
