WRHA hospitals moving towards digitisation

HOSPITALS THROUGHOUT Jamaica will soon have to become digitised in their delivery of healthcare services, especially in their radiology department.

Orville Anderson, manager, medical imaging at Falmouth Hospital, informed The Gleaner on the way forward.

“Very shortly, the paper-based use at all hospitals will be over. We won’t be able to buy chemicals or anything used to store images from X-rays,” advised Anderson. “It has to become a digital way forward for all hospitals.”

Moves to transform the system had actually started approximately three years ago. In 2019, Dr Delroy Fray from the Cornwall Regional Hospital told The Gleaner that there was a budget of US$8 million to digitise the system. He said then that when the system comes into place,” it will make the delivery of healthcare move faster than the Concorde (airliner)”.

That belief is quite popular and welcomed within the healthcare space. St Andrade Sinclair, regional director of the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), signalled his endorsement in saying digitisation is the modern way to go.

“It is a billion-dollar project. My budget to run the hospitals and clinics in western Jamaica is $22 billion, and it is going to cost more,” he explained.

Sinclair described further how a digitised system will speed up the delivery of healthcare.

“Once we are digitised, a patient can stay in New York and access his information which is here in Jamaica. Unlike the paper-based storage, which can be affected by chemicals, a digitally produced image removes that,” he noted.

Sector leaders in the WRHA is excited about the project, with Dr Leighton Perrin, senior medical officer at the Falmouth Hospital, expressing happiness at the prospect of full digitisation.

“Seeing is believing, but I will be very elated when it comes through,” Perrin remarked. “Right now, Cornwall Regional Hospital is on its face. Falmouth has a section dedicated to them. It will bring much joy at the speeding up of healthcare delivery.”