New patient records system nearly £5m over budget

The rollout of a new patient records system in Guernsey is nearly £5m over budget

The rollout of a new patient records system in Guernsey is nearly £5m over budget, according to figures released by a committee head.

President of Health and Social Care (HSC) Deputy Al Brouard said the "complexity" of the project had led to "additional costs because there is more work to do than originally anticipated".

HSC announced earlier this year the project, which will see patient records transferred to digital platforms, would be delayed to early 2025.

The original budget was £17.31m but it has now increased to £22.2m, HSC said.

'Challenge'

In response to questions from Deputy Gavin St Pier, Deputy Gavin St Pier said in March the project was "currently under budget".

But Mr Brouard blamed the rising costs on the need to hire external consultants for the project, which he said had added an extra £1.8m in costs.

"The original premise for this programme was that we would be able to recruit the necessary skills required to deliver the whole programme but this has proven to be a challenge," he said.

States IT contractors Agilisys have also worked on the project.

In addition to the costs for consultants, Mr Brouard said further work on a data centre and IT infrastructure would cost an estimated £0.6m.