A federal-provincial agency will get $400 million in the coming fiscal year to further develop national health care information technology that it hopes will ultimately be useful in establishing wait-times guarantees.

Canada Health Infoway, formed in 2000 by Ottawa and the provinces, will receive the money to support early steps toward establishing patient wait-times guarantees through development of information systems and electronic health records.

Ottawa believes electronic health records support better clinical decision-making, diagnosis, treatment, patient safety and overall increased efficiency, which ultimately results in shorter waiting times.

The budget says Infoway has made progress working with partners to develop a network linking clinics, hospitals, pharmacies and other facilities around the country.

More needs to be done, and Ottawa is prepared to spend more to develop this network and Infoway’s success, the budget said.

Ottawa is also making an extra $612 million available to jurisdictions that make commitments to wait-times guarantees before the end of this month. Of this, $500 million will be allocated on an equal per-capita basis.

Eligible provinces and territories will also receive base funding of $10 million per province and $4 million per territory.

The funds will be paid into a trust fund from which the eligible provinces and territories will be able to draw over three years.

The federal government is also setting aside $30 million to fund a one-time wait-times guarantee pilot project program established by Health Canada. This money will be used over three years to assist the provinces and territories to undertake innovative projects.