$M TO DIGITISE PATIENTS’ RECORDS – AND STILL CYBER ATTACK

FOR two successive years, the Government allocated millions of taxpayers’ dollars to digitise patients’ records in the public health sector.

And yet San Fernando General Hospital and other public health facilities suffered a widespread cyber attack which is said to have ruined hundreds of patients’ records.

In 2022, a total of $10 million was allocated to the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) to undertake the digitisation function.

In 2023, the Government assigned $8 million for a similar activity.

The initial funds were identified for “the implementation of digital healthcare services… toward the enhancement of the health services.”

The first phase of a Public Health Information System (HIMS) was to be undertaken during that fiscal year.

The $8 million PSIP allocation for 2023 was earmarked “to enable more efficient collection, analysis and storage of patient information” and to promote “the goal of One Patient, One Record across the health sector.”

An HIMS solution provider was to be engaged, in collaboration with the National Information and Communication Technology Company.

There has been no update on this digitisation programme.

But a recent cyber breach at South West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) has destroyed a large number of patients’ files, according to informed sources.

SWRHA officials have insisted that patients’ records have been preserved despite the “malicious and profound” attack by an internationally-based perpetrator.

Medics attached to SWRHA have expressed concern about patient care being disrupted as a result of the cyber breach.

Research found that ransomware attacks on medical records severely disturb patient care, which could jeopardise the health of affected people.

Such attacks are usually directed at health records, imaging and laboratory results, communication links and other vital hospital departments.

Internet-based tools suddenly become frozen, resulting in direct threats to patients’ safety, it was explained.

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has remained mum on the cyber breach at SWRHA and there has been limited reporting in the media in spite of the serious threat to patients’ health.

Without records, “we are a needle in a haystack,” one medical source said.

SWRHA officials previously said there were no ransom demands.

There has been an increase in cyber hacking at international medical institutions, causing personal medical data to be publicly exposed.

Such attacks are often costly and time-consuming to repair.

No one in authority at SWRHA has been held accountable for the cyber attack.

A cyber breach at Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) led to the sacking of Chief Executive Officer Lisa Agard.