The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government announced on Wednesday plans to enhance the sharing of electronic health records — including granting access to health records to specific healthcare service providers in the Chinese mainland — to better support patients’ needs.

The proposed amendment is aimed at expanding the sharing and usage of data in the Electronic Health Record Sharing System, also known as eHealth, to  more healthcare services providers inside and outside the city in a secure manner, and to build a comprehensive healthcare information infrastructure in tandem with the government’s “eHealth+” five-year development plan.

The government said on Wednesday it will gazette the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (Amendment) Bill 2025 on Friday; the bill will be tabled at the Legislative Council for first reading on March 26.

READ MORE: HK Hospital Authority urged to reform to improve governance

A highlight of the proposed amendment is to allow individual recognized healthcare providers and public health record systems outside Hong Kong — with the patients’ consent — to browse the eHealth records of patients and add new information to their records following any consultations.

Currently, Hong Kong patients eligible for the Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme can download digital copies of their eHealth records for the previous three years to the eHealth mobile app.

Healthcare service providers from designated institutions in Guangdong province, including the Hong Kong University–Shenzhen Hospital, can open and browse the medical records stored on patients’ phones for consultation purposes. The records can be kept on phones for 270 days.

The amendment would allow doctors from designated institutions, after receiving consent from Hong Kong patients, to directly access relevant medical records on the eHealth online system, according to Deputy Secretary for Health Sam Hui Chark-shum.

Such records may not be downloaded or stored on local computers due to data security considerations, added Hui.

READ MORE: Hong Kong rises to challenge of catering for aging population

The proposed amendment also aims to simplify the consent mechanism so that patients can enjoy a smoother consultation experience.

The eHealth records would not be transmitted outside the city under any other circumstances, the government said.

The bill will also require specific private healthcare providers, designated by the secretary for health, to add important new health data — such as prescriptions, diagnoses, drug reactions and vaccinations — to patients’ eHealth accounts, creating a more comprehensive personal health record. Those who fail to comply with this requirement could face fines.

Hui said about 59 percent of browsing requests in the eHealth system came from private healthcare providers, but only 0.3 percent of the records were uploaded by the private healthcare sector. He said he hopes the amendment can encourage more private medical institutions to upload data.

To better support primary healthcare services — as laid out in Hong Kong’s healthcare strategy — the amendment proposes expanding access to the eHealth system to all healthcare professionals registered with the accredited professional bodies under the Department of Health's Accredited Registers Scheme for Healthcare Professions, and to other specified professionals who provide healthcare services in public healthcare facilities.

Established in 2016, the eHealth system represents a milestone in Hong Kong’s efforts to digitalize medical data, allowing users to track healthcare-related information and keep abreast of health news through the one-stop platform.

As of May 2024, the system had nearly 6 million users and around 4.02 billion sharable electronic health records, covering all public hospitals and clinics, and over 3,000 private healthcare providers in the city.

The five-year “eHealth+” plan was rolled out in the 2023 Policy Address, setting four strategic goals to boost the system, including integrating patients’ healthcare records at different institutions with their eHealth accounts, and establishing a centralized healthcare data repository to support medical services, as well as pharmaceutical and biotechnology research.

David Lam Tzit-yuen, who represents the medical sector in the Legislative Council, said the amendment provides a legal framework for cross-boundary use of personal health records, facilitating residents seeking medical consultations outside Hong Kong.

He highlighted compatibility challenges between prescription systems at private medical institutions and the eHealth system, advocating for regulations to ensure all healthcare and prescription management systems in Hong Kong are compatible with eHealth.

The lawmaker added that a user-friendly interface for record uploading is essential to accommodate doctors who are not proficient in computer technology.

Contact the writer at atlasshao@chinadailyhk.com