£3.2 million IT upgrade for Nobles Hospital

Tynwald has approved spending more than £3 million on an new IT system for Noble's Hospital.

Health Minister Howard Quayle outlined the importance of replacing the current model, which he said was well past its best.

The new system will enable benchmarking against UK trusts.

He said the Medway route had been found to be the most appropriate for the Island, being efficient, cost-effective and the choice of many in the UK medical providers.

Concern about data protection were raised by Speaker of the House of Keys Steve Rodan.

He was worried about the sharing of sensitive health information and giving other agencies access to it.

But Mr Quayle reassured members this was just one clincial system replacing another, and there were no plans for shared records.