e-health services coming to T&T

The Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Health is beginning a pilot project in early 2010 in preparation for the introduction of a nationwide e-health system for citizens.

The high-tech enhancement of the service will allow speedier access to services, including appointments with physicians and availability of health records online.

Health Minister Jerry Narace told the Trinidad Guardian the card would be available to some people next year and by 2012 everyone would have a health card.

Narace told the paper the e-card would also make it easier for citizens to access health care abroad.

He said, “The project will start on a pilot basis in March and then it will be rolled out to the entire country by the third or fourth quarter of next year...This is intended to be the first real major transformation tool in health care."

He said the card would eliminate printed forms since everything, including access to health records, would be completed with a swipe of the card. The system, he explained, is aimed at speedier delivery of services.

Although the service is Internet-based, the ministry will offer call centre services to assist anyone who doesn't have access to the Internet or other electronic facilities such as text messaging.

Canada uses a health card for its universal health care system but the province of Ontario ran into serious roadblocks in trying to introduce an e-health plan.

It resulted in a multi-million dollar corruption scandal that forced the resignation of the health minister and the dismissal of the service's top official.

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