The Government has replied the former Principal Auditor’s comments regarding the Gibraltar Health Authority’s (GHA) payment of £700,000 to EMIS Ltd for the continuation and upgrade of its Electronic Health Records (EHR) system. 

A statement continued: “While the Government welcomes scrutiny and remains committed to transparency, it is important to set out the context that has been overlooked in the former Auditor’s report: 

• EMIS is the most widely used clinical system for primary care in the United Kingdom, including across the NHS.
• In 2014, EMIS was awarded a ten-year contract to deliver Gibraltar’s national EHR platform following a fully transparent tender process. The process was publicly announced via Press Release on the 23rd December 2013 (922/2013) and followed the publication of the tender in the Official Journal of the European Union.
• By 2019, EMIS was deeply embedded across the GHA’s clinical operations, including primary care, community care, and mental health services. The payment referenced by the former Auditor was made to ensure continuity of service and implementation of essential upgrades to a system that is central to patient safety and the daily functioning of the health service.

"The suggestion that this payment should have triggered a new procurement process ignores the operational and clinical realities of digital health infrastructure. The continuation of the EMIS system was not discretionary. It was necessary to maintain access to more than a decade of health records and avoid severe disruption to frontline care.

“HM Government of Gibraltar is concerned that the former Auditor’s approach in this instance yet again appears to reflect a narrow, procedural view of procurement that risks undermining public understanding of complex, long-term service delivery decisions, and remains confident that the decision to continue and upgrade the EMIS platform represented the best outcome for the health service and for patients. 

“The agreement delivered significant value through the continuity, security, and clinical integration it preserved.”