During the daily publication on a newspaper of a Committee who ban the access to other health professionals like physiotherapist or speech therapist into the patient’s file GESY I want to clarify that:
I agree with the fact that other professionals must give a proper process, the health care professionals must have the basic information of the patient medical record in GESY. I have already communicated this position both to the Health Insurance Organization (OAY) and to the professional associations.
Anyway, the GEYS system, how it is actually built, does not allow a partial access. All or nothing. This means, that another health care professional will have the access of the whole patient medical record, which can includes doctor’s opinions who are not included into the process.
There are some technical solutions can should be seriously taken into account by OAY in order to satisfy the healthcare professionals needs but also in order to the best provision of health services to interests.
For example, the architectural structure of the system could be modified to give other health professionals the opportunity to partially access the patient’s file and the necessary information that will be determined by the relevant doctor. Alternatively, the issuance of an electronic referral could be attached to it the necessary information such as X-ray copies, CT scans, mrI, analysis, etc.
Tomorrow regulations regulating this matter will be discussed in the House and I have already submitted a note to the Chairman of the Health Committee.
In conclusion, I have not prohibited other health professionals from accessing NHS patient files. It is the existing structure of the system that makes this access prohibitive.
In conclusion, I would like to add that, for the purposes of better information to the public, it would be preferable for journalists to also ask for the positions of my Office before publishing matters relating to their competences.