Thu, Mar 7th 2024
Switzerland’s National Council greenlights the CHF 400 million Digisanté program to advance healthcare digitalisation, amid calls for vigilant oversight.
A funding package worth almost CHF 400 million over the next ten years is intended to drive forward digitalisation in the healthcare sector. The National Council approved the Digisanté program on Thursday, but would like to closely monitor the project.
The Grand Chamber approved the credit commitment for the program to promote digital transformation in the healthcare sector (Digisanté) by 127 votes to 64 in the overall vote. The bill now goes to the Council of States.
Only the SVP parliamentary group said no to the multi-million euro digitization programme. Group leader Thomas Aeschi (ZG) referred to the ailing federal finances. Health expenditure should be curbed. Therefore, the bill should not be accepted. However, there was no support for this motion outside the SVP.
Despite broad approval, many critical voices were heard in the Council. “We are excellent at providing direct medical care, but make too little use of digitalization,” said Kris Vietze (FDP/TG), spokesperson for the lead health committee, on behalf of the majority.
Thomas Rechsteiner (centre/AI) described Digisanté as a “remedy to catch up with digitalization in the healthcare sector”. However, there are risks and side effects. Effective controlling must be installed.
For Melanie Mettler (GLP/BE), Digisanté is an important basis for the implementation of the electronic patient dossier. “We are pleased that things are now moving forward as quickly as possible.” Waiting would only make investments in digitisation more expensive.
Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider pointed out that there was no lack of will to move forward. “But decisive action is now needed.” Without coordination between the various players in the healthcare system, it would not work.
The large-scale program aims to improve the quality of treatment, efficiency and transparency of the healthcare system as well as patient safety over a period of ten years. Hospitals and medical practices have been working digitally for a long time, but with different programs. As a result, a lot of data has to be recorded multiple times, which is a source of error.
The aim of the program is to better coordinate systems and processes in the healthcare sector. The federal government wants to use the money to digitalise health-related government services such as registers, reporting systems and information platforms across the board and ensure that they can communicate with other IT systems.
However, close monitoring of the program is key for the National Council. It provides the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA) with clear guidelines on objectives, controlling and the involvement of stakeholders and requires annual reporting to Parliament.
A motion by the National Council’s Finance Committee (FK-N) to compensate for the posts created within the FDHA as part of the program was rejected by the plenary. A majority of the SP, FDP, Greens and GLP prevailed – by 105 votes to 84 with 2 abstentions.
The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and the Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO) have already made their contribution to the project. The entire program will cost CHF 623 million. Parliament has to decide on a loan of CHF 391.7 million.
Moreover, in the opinion of a majority, internal staff are cheaper than external experts, who would have to be called in to compensate within the FDHA. The fear is that this could lead to major delays.
©Keystone/SDA
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