Public health passports for Brits are back being debated again, with many health organisations backing the introduction.
NHS patients would have their health information logged online and digitally stored in one place so that any doctors treating them away from their normal practice could access their data at any time.
Recent reports state that the public overwhelmingly support patient passports, which would see a single system to keep track of every person’s medical records throughout their lifetime across GP surgeries, NHS hospitals, pharmacies and social care settings.
The Times Health Commission conducted a study which found eight in 10 of those asked would be in support of the system being brought in through law.
The proposal has been debated and backed in the Times Health Commission Report, which is being published following a year-long inquiry which involved a panel of experts, senior doctors, hospital managers, and 600 witnesses.
But what are they and how do they work?
What are health passports?
The study concluded that “technology has the power to transform healthcare”, with an urgent need to overhaul outdated and fragmented systems that prevent data being shared freely between different parts of the NHS.
They would be a single point of entry for all medical professionals, with your lifetime of treatment available online for all medical professionals with access at the click of a button.
How would they work?
The idea is that it would be an update to the current NHS App already in place. At present, patients can log in to see upcoming appointments and some test results online if they have opted in.
Under this new system, the app would work as a gateway to the health service to allow a full history of medical healthcare since birth, with everything logged in one place.
Patients would also have access and it would also allow them to book appointments, log symptoms, order prescriptions, view test results and contact doctors electronically.
Do other countries use health passports?
Yes. At present, similar systems already exist in Spain, Singapore, Estonia, Israel, and Denmark.
The report found that in the UK, there are “between 40 and 60” different types of electronic patient records within the NHS, while around 10 per cent of hospitals are still entirely paper-based.
What are the cons?
Some believe it is a dangerous move, as it is a hackable system and could allow criminals to infiltrate the system and access all your data.
Experts also say there are concerns over what would happen if they system went down and there were no paper back-ups.
Phil Booth, founder at medical privacy campaign medConfidential, said: “What is really worrying is loads of people rocking up with digital IDs. What they're actually selling is a whole ID infrastructure, which is much more complex. We do not want a third-party system that has access to your medical records."
Tim Mackey of the Synopsys Cybersecurity Research Centre, added: “The security implications of those mobile apps are similar to any healthcare app: any medical data on a person is of prime value to an attacker… Even if the medical data is limited to a simple statement of vaccination, the nature of the pandemic makes even that data rather valuable. For example, if there were a bug in the app or underlying service that caused it to display to someone that a vaccination protocol hadn't been completed when it had, then such an error could result in the traveller being denied entry or worse.
“Medical record access is a major concern with any healthcare app; if it's hacked, then suddenly criminals can access nearly everything about you, from your place of birth to your blood type. And it isn't limited to cyber-attacks: the NHS app needs access to your medical records to show vaccine information and, if used as a passport must, by definition, be handed over at a border.”
