Government calls on citizens to arrange for children to register with eHealth for establishing personal lifelong electronic health record
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A spokesman for the HHB said, "Through the use of eHealth, members of the public may establish a personal lifelong electronic health record with privacy well protected. In addition, they can store and access the vaccination record of various government vaccination programmes via the eHealth mobile application. For example, all records of vaccination children received at Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) since 2007 and at primary schools across the city since 2013 under the Hong Kong Childhood Immunisation Programme run by the Department of Health (DH) have been uploaded to eHealth for citizens' flexible use as necessary in daily life, thereby saving the trouble of handling paper record and avoiding the risk of losing such a record."
At present, some 30 per cent of the population aged below 16 have registered with eHealth. In this connection, the HHB and the DH will work together to launch a dedicated eHealth registration drive for students this academic year. Registration consent forms for eHealth are distributed together with that for Seasonal Influenza Vaccination at schools. Students can then sign up for eHealth in one go.
In addition, the DH will commence the student annual health assessment services for the school year 2023/24 this November. The HHB will deploy eHealth mobile registration teams to various Student Health Service Centres in rotation to help students and parents register for and download the mobile application. The MCHCs of the DH will also have express registration for eHealth in place during the regular enrolment procedure to assist parents in signing up for their newborns.
The Government has been employing different means to encourage citizens and private healthcare service providers to register with and utilise eHealth, such that citizens can get hold of and better manage their health record. This will be conducive to the delivery of continuous healthcare services to citizens and the enhancement of efficiency and quality of relevant healthcare services.
To date, citizens are required to use eHealth when joining the Public Private Partnership Programmes of the Hospital Authority and the DH as well as receiving services at District Health Centres. The Government plans to extend the relevant arrangement from next year onwards to other government health services, including participation in the government-subsidised Vaccination Subsidy Scheme and registration for using the Elderly Health Care Voucher. With reference to the experience for COVID-19 vaccination, starting from this November, as citizens sign up for the government-subsidised Vaccination Subsidy Scheme, a default consent to register with eHealth will be made by the system to streamline the registration procedure.
The eHealth (Electronic Health Record Sharing System) was introduced in 2016. Apart from public hospitals and clinics, all 13 private hospitals and some 2 900 private medical institutions in Hong Kong have registered as eHealth healthcare service providers. Members of the public may visit the website www.ehealth.gov.hk/en/index.html or call the hotline at 3467 6300 for more details or making enquiries about eHealth. The hotline service runs from 9am to 9pm, from Monday to Friday (except public holidays).
Ends/Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Issued at HKT 11:36
Issued at HKT 11:36
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