The GHA’s record department has this week been relocated to another area of the building. The former site on the ground floor was too small for the number of records kept, leading to files being crammed onto shelves and getting damaged easily.

The Department has been fully transferred to an area on the second floor, which had been used as a store. This space has been equipped to hold all the records, accommodate the staff, and allow additional space for processing of files. This will greatly assist in the computerisation of Records which is being planned as part of the introduction of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, a process that has already commenced.

Once the EHR is fully functioning, paper records will be phased out. However, the works to the new Records Department have been designed out in a way that the whole area can be easily converted to clinical use once it is no longer required for Records.

Commenting on the matter, Health Minister Dr John Cortes noted, ‘from the outset, I was determined to put right the state of the Records Department and the conditions of work of the staff. The new facilities will increase the morale of the staff and also the efficiency of the patient Record system, as well as facilitating the conversion into the Electronic Health Record to which we are committed.’