THE Government of Guyana is currently evaluating bids that were submitted for the provision of a comprehensive electronic health records system here.

Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony made this disclosure during the Ministry of Health’s end-of-year press conference, where he noted that throughout the year they have been advancing work in this area.

He said: “This year we have been working on our digital health and we are hoping that by next year we will set up a new department regarding digital health in the ministry.”

Added to this, he noted that this will be the ninth programme that will be added to the ministry as he mentioned that quite a number of things have been done on this front.

Dr Anthony added that this year, there have been talks about the integration of a comprehensive electronic health records system and they have had 16 companies so far, bidding to provide this system.

As it is currently, the health minister noted that evaluators are currently going through those bids to narrow it down to one company with which the ministry will then work to develop the system.

Earlier in 2023, Adviser to the Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, had said that the government is moving to aggressively transform and digitise the sector.

He noted that moves are being made 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 the country.

In June of 2023, Dr Anthony noted that there needs to be a data architecture in place as they are moving in the direction of having electronic health records.

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 concerning their personal data.