Your Health Summary (YHS), a patient-data sharing system for New Zealand’s health professionals, now holds the records of 450,000 individuals.
Launched in April 2020, the records are currently accessible to authorised healthcare providers in participating GP clinics, urgent care clinics and Covid-19 vaccination centres. With 150 practices signed up, YHS clinical director Dr Daniel Calder said that the next step is to enable access to hospitals, particularly emergency departments, as this setting would clearly benefit from the system.
Patients are automatically signed up to the system when they enrol with a practice by declaring they have read the Use of Health Information Statement. They must opt out of the system if they do not wish their data to be available beyond their usual GP, and they have the option to withhold selected details and exclude specific practices.
