Updated - Adds new video - A new Clinical Patient Administration System, described by the health minister as the health service's IT backbone, has been formally commissioned.

The minister, Godfrey Farrugia, said the new system was a vast improvement on the old Patient Administration System. The work on the new system was done in-house.

Dr Farrugia explained at a press conference this morning that while the old system only featured basic information about patients, the new one would enable nurses, doctors and consultants to update the patients’ medical history.

As soon as a patient turned up in a government hospital or health centre, the medical professionals would immediately know his/her medical history as well as the results of medical tests.

"This is the gateway to health, it increases patient safety because of better diagnostic tools, it improves accountability and allows for a patient-centric healthcare system," he said.

Plans are in hand  to extend the system to family doctor clinics.

Dr Farrugia said development work under the ministry's IT consultant  Mark Sammut started in July 2013 and the roll out started in December and finished by mid-January. Training was now being completed, he said.  Old hand-written medical records were being transferred to the new system.

Dr Farrugia recalled how a €2.5m contract for the new system awarded by direct order by the old government had been cancelled because it was not deemed to meet all of the sector's current needs.

He said the new system would also enable administrators to stagger hospital appointments and ensure there was better hospital bed management because of the overview it gave of the situation in the hospital, such as patients' condition and length of stay. 

The authorities, he said, were also upgrading the IT system for the management of medicines, including stock control and  the Pharmacy of Your Choice Scheme.

With the introduction of e-ID cards, they would also be able to introduce an e-prescriptions service, where prescriptions were issued in a secure e-service within need for paper.