The Health Service Executive is seeking an annual IT budget of up to €1.4 billion over the next seven years to fund the implementation of its digital health roadmap.

In 2023, 2.2 per cent of the total health spend budget was allocated to IT, equating to less than €500 million. The funding falls significantly short of spending in other healthcare organisations which, according to an industry benchmark report, ranges from four per cent to 5.4 per cent of the overall health spend.

In the HSE’s Digital Health Strategic Implementation Roadmap, a copy of which has been seen by Pulse+IT, the executive says the annual digital health budget needs to be dramatically increased, to between four and six per cent of the overall healthcare expenditure.

Based on the 2024 budget of 23.5 billion, the investment would range from €940 million to €1.4 billion each year for the next seven years, which is the duration of the new roadmap.

“The Roadmap’s success through to 2030 hinges on the commitment to yearly increases in both capital and revenue funding, accompanied by a corresponding increase in staffing levels,” the document states. “The timing of the implementation of the initiatives in the Roadmap are dependent on the funding being secured through the annual funding mechanisms.”

The workforce, data, and operational infrastructure are considered to be foundational to the roll-out of the implementation plan and, as such, they are a primary focus of the investment strategy.

The purpose of the HSE’s Roadmap is to set out digital health initiatives that will deliver the vision set out in the Department of Health’s Digital Health Framework for Ireland (2024-2030), which was published in May.

The new implementation roadmap sets out 48 initiatives that will be undertaken over the next seven years. The projects range from digital literacy programmes, patient administration and care coordination to national clinical information systems, the digitisation of health care records and the implementation of AI tools.

The initiatives have been prioritised for implementation. Projects including the patient portal, HSE app, and care coordination platforms will be advanced in the next two years. The necessary legislation, standards and governance have also been prioritised for this time period.

Initiatives such as the digitisation of medical records and integrated referral management systems will progress in years three and four of the implementation plan, while project such as the Open Health API Framework will be delayed until at least year five.

Issues that have been prioritised for immediate action are a governance framework, a dedicated transformation team, standards, and interoperability requirements.