–Dr. Ramsammy says

WITH the official pilot programme of an Electronic Medical Records system launched at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), Adviser to the Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said that they are aggressively moving to transform and digitise the sector.

Dr. Ramsammy made these remarks during the launch of the EMR system at the GPHC Friday last when he noted that the launch was deliberately designed to say to the country that the health sector is in a hurry to embrace technology.

He said: “We are making an aggressive move to transform the sector from a sector that made minimal use of digital technology to one that optimises fully digital technology in improving healthcare in our country.”
Along with this, he said that steps are being taken to implement digital systems in other parts of the hospital, and by extension the health sector.
Dr. Ramsammy said that there is a functional laboratory information system that is being interlinked with all clinics.

Additionally, arrangements are being made for the pharmacy and laboratory to have inter-operability capacity to be linked into the EMR system.
“We are working with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to ensure that Guyana rolls out a high-quality electronic medical record, so this is just the beginning of that effort,” he said.
Further, Dr. Ramsammy indicated that while the GPHC has pioneered every advancement made in the health sector in the country, it plans, once again, to take over leadership of healthcare in the Caribbean.

However, he said that for this to take place, there must not only be bits and pieces of digital health in place, but also a comprehensive digital health system in place across the sector.
Meanwhile, late last year, the announcement was made by Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony that electronic records would be coming on stream; however, they would be working on the relevant laws to allow for this digital record system.

In June 2023, Dr. Anthony said that there needs to be a data architecture in place, as they are moving in the direction of having electronic health records soon.
“We want these legislative things to be in place, so that once we start implementing a health records system, people must be assured that their information would be well kept.”
Subsequently, the Data Protection Bill of 2023 was presented to the National Assembly, and is set to regulate the collection, keeping, processing use and dissemination of personal data to protect the privacy of individuals in relation to their personal data.