New law on social and healthcare client and patient e-information
The government agreed 2 November draft bill regulating the use of social and healthcare client and patient information in electronic form. It also adopted proposals on the use of electronic prescriptions. The two will be combined as a single piece of legislation.
The draft on patient information covers archive services, encryption and certification services and patient access to data. The services will be regulated by the National Insurance Institution, the National Authority for Medicolegal Affairs and the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health. The creation of a common archiving system is expected to promote patient and client care and confidentiality and increase the efficiency of healthcare services.
The law makes statutory the incorporation of all public healthcare units into the electronic archiving system, as well as of private healthcare ones that do not use paper archiving. The creation of the data service is expected to cost 10 million € and the transfer to the new system to take four years.
The preparation of the new system was boosted in March when the ministerial group of the programme on the information society adopted proposals by the MSAH to upgrade the use of electronic patient records.
Further information: Mr Pekka Järvinen, Senior Officer, Legal Affairs, tel. +358 9 160 73800