$5M US technical school planned to support national eHEALTH rollout

Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Tuesday announced plans to establish a US$5 million technical school to train individuals to support the implementation and maintenance of the new national electronic health records (eHEALTH) system. 

The health minister, speaking at the launch of the online patient booking system at Festival City Polyclinic in Georgetown, announced that “we have US$5 million set aside to start a technical school to train the technical people, so that they can be deployed to every region and be able to provide these technical services as we roll out this platform.”

Minister Anthony also revealed that the ministry will train numerous young people with the technical skillsets needed to manage the system as it expands across the country effectively.

He explained that the ministry is already running another programme “to train a number of persons, because as we deploy these systems, you also need technical people who would help to make sure that if anything goes wrong, they are there to fix it.”

He further added that while the younger tech-savvy population may be able to use the platform easily, there will be people available to assist the older population as the platform is being rolled out.

The first part of the system is being piloted at the Festival City Polyclinic. 

This system helps healthcare professionals make better decisions about patient care, improves patient referrals and transfers, and makes documentation more efficient and accurate. It also shortens patient waiting times and enhances the overall experience at health facilities nationwide.