(Ecofin Agency) - Last week, Tunisia’s interim minister of health Sonia Ben Cheikh (photo) announced an TND80 million investment for the modernization of the country’s hospitals’ IT system.  

This operation will help digitalize health records and support an enhanced follow-up with patients as well as better management of laboratories. It will also contribute to the development of telemedicine (the first phase of which should start this month).  

Rabta, Jendouba, Tozeur, Ben Arous and Habib Thameur hospitals have been chosen as the first sites where the IT modernization project will be implemented.

According to the minister, “in April, the online appointment scheduling system will be operational in twelve public hospitals and in all the other public hospitals in July 2019.” This year, 600 basic health centres will also benefit from the IT infrastructure thanks to which they can offer telemedicine services.

In 2020-2021, an additional TND15 million will be invested to provide IT infrastructure in all the health centres in Tunisia. That way, they will offer telemedicine services and get closer to the population.

webmanagercenter indicates that all these programmes were revealed during the healthcare management day organized on April 2, 2019, by the anti-corruption authority (INLUCC) in collaboration with the court advisors association.