Option to Opt Out of Sharing Patient Health Data with National Electronic Health Record

Mr Yip Hon Weng asked the Minister for Health (a) whether outpatient clinics in private hospitals can opt out of sharing patient health records with the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR); (b) whether patients treated at private hospitals can opt out of contributing their health records to the NEHR; (c) if opting out is not possible, whether patients can restrict access to their NEHR records by other healthcare practitioners; and (d) how can patients be guaranteed that their health data in the NEHR system cannot be accessed by insurance companies.

The National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) information is for the purposes of clinical care. The information of a patient is therefore only accessible by clinicians or healthcare professionals who are caring for the patient. Healthcare providers are also prohibited from sharing NEHR information further with external parties not involved in the care of the patient. Hence, insurance companies or employers do not and will not have access to NEHR information. In the proposed Health Information Bill, to be tabled in Parliament this year, the Ministry of Health intends to make this even clearer.

Within a healthcare institution or clinic, patients' health information will always be captured. This is important for proper clinical care and is no different from any service provider, which must always capture the information of the customers they serve.

However, for healthcare, beyond capturing patients' health information, we also need to share it across the healthcare system. This is because patients move from setting to setting and the sharing of information will ensure proper continuity of care and also cut down on duplicative and unnecessary diagnostic tests.

Today, patients' health information is already shared across public healthcare institutions. However, this is not the case between private and public sector healthcare institutions, as contribution of patients' health information by private healthcare institutions is voluntary. The key purpose of the Health Information Bill is to make it a requirement for all licensed healthcare providers, including private outpatient clinics and private hospitals, to contribute summary patient health records to NEHR and share them across the healthcare system for better care of patients.

Patients, therefore, cannot opt out of contributing their records to NEHR, as this is required for proper clinical care. We intend to provide under the Health Information Bill provisions that enable patients some control over the extent which medical information will be shared with healthcare providers providing care to the patients. We will elaborate on this feature when the Bill is introduced and debated.