The Director of the HSE has said the Irish health system cannot be developed further as there is no funding to improve technology.
Director Tony O’Brien said there is a serious lack of capital investment to improve infrastructure and the system is being starved as a result.
Mr O’Brien further explained that the health service is so far behind it’s international counterparts with modern communication rarely used citing the fact that 36,000 HSE workers do not even have an email address.
Mr O’Brien claims the serious lack of funding stopped ICT growth: “Which is why we still have nursing homes in what are little more than workhouses from the last century.”
“Which is why we still have emergency departments that are too small for the population trying to use them and it is one of the reasons, combined with some negativity about past projects, I mean for ten years until very recently the health system has been starved of much need investment and information, communication technology.”