Manx patients' information to go digital

Major digital initiative launched

Around 100,000 medical records are to be digitised as part of a new strategy in the Department of Health and Social Care.

The 'Digital Future' programme will introduce a range of initiatives aimed at saving resources and synchronising patient information across board.

The Department estimates some 7,000 paper records are printed every day - moving them all online, it hopes, will save space and make access easier for medical staff.

There's a further promise to go fully 'paperless' at Nobles Hospital by 2019.

Also included in a package of measures announced this week are a new unified staff communication system, a digital prescription service and an electronic discharge utility.

Health bosses describe it as a 'critically important initiative', and hope it will make 'inefficiencies and the potential for error' a thing of the past.