One small change: An infectious disease specialist on how to make Ireland’s health system better

As our health system begins to return to normal activity levels following the Covid-19 pandemic, we would like to hear from doctors, nurses, paramedics, medical secretaries, hospital porters, canteen staff and others about one change they would like to see in our health system.

It can be something simple that annoys you, day in, day out, that is easily fixed, or it can be a small change in practice or attitude that would make life easier for everyone.

If you are interested in sharing your idea, you can email health@irishtimes.com (put “One Small Change” in the subject line), or fill in the online box below. Thank you.

Dr Eoghan de Barra

Consultant in infectious diseases at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin
"If I was to pick one thing to improve the health service it would be to have more patient information available to healthcare professionals. The entire health service handles vast amounts of data, from patients' own stories to information from relatives, from clinical observations, examinations and diagnostic tests, pharmacy records to opinions from doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers.

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“A smoother comprehensive and accessible way to collect, store and retrieve this information would transform our daily working lives and the experience of patients. Currently, many GPs store the information on their patients on data bases, but this patient information is rarely available to the hospital and tests done in hospital are often slow to be sent to GPs. And when paramedics are collecting patients by ambulance, often they have scant medical history available to them.

“We have a subnational radiology system, allowing rapid sharing of X-rays and scan that allows prompt decision making and referral processes. There are plans for integrated laboratory results systems, but progress is slow.

“In other countries, tests performed in primary care at one end of the country are available to a specialist centre at the other. The rollout of testing and vaccination during the Covid-19 pandemic has streamed patients more smoothly and removed risks of duplication. Our population adapted very well to online bookings and text results and this could continue in other areas of healthcare. Data safety and protection concerns would have to be addressed, but having full access to patient information is central to planning care and it’s time the Irish healthcare system fully embraced the sharing of patient records across primary and secondary healthcare.”