By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE digitisation of medical records is of paramount importance in advancing medical care and the Ministry of Health will be fast-tracking this initiative.
It was the first of 16 recommendations listed by the five-member committee mandated to investigate and report on the healthcare system during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh speaking about the contents of the report during Saturday’s virtual media conference said the report was well-balanced and he congratulated the team headed by Professor Terrence Seemungal on conducting such a comprehensive report which will also be published in international literature.
Deyalsingh said, “Trinidad and Tobago is going to be viewed as a leader in being open and transparent showing the whole spectrum of the Covid-19 response.”
“We accept the good but we have to focus on the shortcomings,” he added.
He said many objective people and experts around the world have already read the report since it was made public around 2 pm on Friday after it was laid in Parliament by Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young.
“Their conclusions are that we have done very well for a small country with limited resources as opposed to many other countries who are still treating patients in car parks. We were never at that stage. Context is important,” the minister said.
Mentioning several recommendations, Deyalsingh said the ministry agreed to the recommendations made on data management, dedication of frontline staff, patient communication and meals.
On the topic of data management, he said, “Moving forward, data management is going to be critical and I am glad that the committee raised it. As you know, we now have a Ministry of Digital Transformation. We at the Ministry of Health… we have a national policy now on how we digitise the entire healthcare system.
“One of the priorities now as we are coming out this wave is to actually operationalise, the digitisation of all aspects of the delivery of healthcare which will redound to the benefit of both patients and frontline staff and start to move away from paper and pen. That is a process that was slowed down because of the pandemic but is something that we are paying attention to now as we can devote some time and effort to that.”
The ministry will be accelerating The National Health Information Management System Policy.
Deyalsingh said in managing any healthcare system data was important.
Also, on the immediate agenda will be discussions with the Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) who performed better than others.
“One of the immediate things that I have to do and we will be doing is engaging the RHAs that did well to see what they did well and roll out that because the pandemic isn’t over,” Deyalsingh said
He admitted, “Communications is something that we have to improve on.”
Staff issues
Speaking on the issue of staff shortage at hospitals, he pointed out that in a pandemic, there were no guidelines to staff to patient ratios and human resource was already stretched.
Deyalsingh said, “ We continue to monitor it and we continue to find ways to deal with this.”
One method was incorporating electronic
“Another part of the report that we have to accept is the truth, is the issue of staff burnout which we have no secret off… I take those findings very seriously and we will learn from which RHA did well and we will help the other RHAs which the committee found there were shortcomings in the way they engage staff to make sure we don’t repeat that,” Deyalsingh said.
The report stated that the mental health of staff was important and suggested that accommodation and meals be provided for some, as well as job security for young doctors and nurses in the form of at least a one year contract.
And the minister also emphasised that critical supplies from pharmaceutical base C40 was always available to RHAs during the pandemic regardless of whether requested on weekends or public holidays.
