Plan for patient digital databank delayed

The ministries of information technology and health were at loggerheads in a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology over the digitization of patients’ history project.
The panel met under the chairmanship of Ali Khan Jadoon. It was briefed on the ongoing and new projects of the SCO.

MNA Romina Khursheed Alam complained that websites lacked the data of patients. Federal Minister for Information Technology and Communication Aminul Haq noted that for the first time in the country’s history all the ministries had been made paperless.

The officials told the meeting that PTCL’s first cloud-based data centre was being established in the country on which data of commercial websites would be posted. It was further said that the project would cost Rs770 million.

Meanwhile, the National Information Technology Board (NITB) held the IT Ministry responsible for the delay in the patients’ digital data bank plan during the pandemic.

The NITB said the project had been started in consultation with the health ministry at a cost of Rs90 million, adding that its software was completed after carrying out tests.

It was said that the software would help patients get an ID, which would reveal their data in any hospital, and rid them of getting the check-up slips.