Above: Kingston (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica’s government has earmarked about $472,000 USD to begin implementation of its planned Electronic Medical Records system.

The plan, which would replace the country’s existing paper-based system, is part of Jamaica’s National Strategic Plan for Health Information System.

“Our first set of projects in terms of Electronic Medical Records will start in the first quarter of next year, and it will start with our regional hospitals and the four Centres of Excellence,” Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson said in a government release.

The full roll-out of the system has not yet been announced, but Ferguson said “all the work is being done to have a system in place sometime within the next financial year.”

Ferguson said the plan would also impact the country’s plans to develop its medical tourism sector.

“If, as a nation, we are to take the talk about health tourism seriously, then the platform that allows for tele-medicine, which includes electronic medical records, must be implemented,” he said.