Optimise the sharing of eHealth records
The upcoming budget speech will no doubt allocate resources to healthcare. To strengthen the role of the eHealth system in enhancing public health services in Hong Kong, the government should ensure timely updates of patient records and issue clear guidelines about using eHealth records.
Despite the significant increase in patient enrolment in the eHealth system from 653,717 in 2020 to 5,788,123 in 2023 the usage rate among healthcare professionals remains low. On average, each private healthcare professional only uses the eHealth app 15 times a month.
A frontline doctor has pointed out that the sharing of medical records of eHealth participants requires further optimisation. To begin with, patients need to authorise each private clinic separately to access and share their medical records through eHealth. To simplify matters, the eHealth administrator should allow patients to authorise all their medical records to be shared among all medical professionals enrolled in eHealth in one go.
While healthcare professionals are expected to share the medical records in eHealth in a timely manner, in practice doctors may have to wait a week before accessing a patient’s updated records from another healthcare provider via eHealth. It would be helpful if eHealth administrators could set a timeline for record updates to prevent such delays.
Although the government issued a Code of Practice for Using Electronic Health Record for Healthcare, this document mainly deals with technical, logistical and security issues. It does not specifically recommend that the shared eHealth records should be consulted to make clinical decisions.
To encourage more healthcare professionals to use the eHealth platform, the Health Bureau should support research and provide training on how comprehensive and updated eHealth records could create additional value for medical practices. Such efforts are essential to ensure that the funding for developing and maintaining the eHealth system is fully justifiable.
Holly Chik and Carly Chu, Kowloon Tong