The Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal, launched, today, at the Mahebourg Methadone Day Care Centre, the National Electronic Database (NED) of the Harm Reduction Unit (HRU).
The launching ceremony was organised by the Health Ministry in collaboration with the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication, and Innovation. The Parliamentary Private Secretary, Mrs Teenah Jutton, and other personalities were present on this occasion.
The HRU is responsible for the prevention, harm reduction, treatment and rehabilitation of people who inject drugs while hospital services provide treatment for substance use disorders for people who use drugs in acute phase. Medical Officers from the Harm Reduction Unit collaborate with several non-governmental organisations in providing codeine-based treatment to people who use drugs.
In a statement, Dr Jagutpal observed that the NED was developed in-house, with the collaboration of doctors and IT officers of his Ministry as well as personnel of the Ministry of Information Technology, Communication and Innovation, with a view to have access to all the methadone beneficiaries’ information more efficiently. He indicated that methadone was distributed to more than 6,000 beneficiaries through Methadone Day Care Centres around the island.
Minister Jagutpal underlined that this tailor-made and user-friendly database pertaining to people who were on methadone treatment would enable doctors in any centre to have access to required information so as to provide better treatment to patients. He added that the database was in line with the e-Health concept that his Ministry intended to implement through all health services in Mauritius.
It is noted that access to the NED is restricted to only doctors and concerned medical staff who require a username and a password to have access to a patient’s confidential data.
