PLANS to replace the sexual health clinic’s paper-based patient records system with a “more intelligent way of reporting” have been pushed down the priority list – despite warnings that the Island’s ability to track infections is limited by outdated paper-based systems.
A document presented at last week’s Health Advisory Board meeting reveals that plans for the electronic patient record system for the sexual health clinic have been marked as “deferred”.
The project, described as being designed to “capture structured clinical data and remove the current paper-based process”, has been shelved following what the report described as a “reprioritisation of work”.
The paper adds: “Reprioritisation of work meant this project was deprioritised. Working is ongoing with digital services to support full release and functionality, with a proposed go-live of quarter three 2026.”
The latest Sexual Health Profile, published at the end of last year, revealed that gonorrhoea rates in Jersey had climbed by more than 50% in eight years, while levels of genital warts and genital herpes have been higher than in England in recent years.
In that report, Public Health officials acknowledged that local infection data is compromised because some of the most sensitive statistics are recorded only on paper, requiring “manual counting” and limiting access to up-to-date figures.
The promised digital system was supposed to change that – enabling secure, confidential downloads of data and allowing for improved reporting, including demographic details such as age, gender and ethnicity.
The board papers also revealed that several other digital health projects are also stalled.
The replacement or update of the electronic patient record system in the General Hospital is also marked as “deferred”, as is the cervical cancer screening upgrade – which is now dependent on connection to the NHS network and is not expected to go live until 2027.
