Health cards with history of disease and treatment for all

Feb , 2016
The Delhi Government is planning to issue health cards to all citizens. This, they claim, will ensure easy availability of disease history, ongoing treatment and prescription details. Tenders have already been issued for selection of the private concessionaire who will execute the work.

Senior officials in the state health department said the card, Delhi Health ID, will help streamline patient services apart from creating a real time data on disease burden.

"The electronic health record of all persons will be collated through a centralised web-based application. It will be accessible free of cost to all health institutions, either public or private," said one of the officials. He added that initially it will be voluntary for private hospitals to utilize the software and after a certain time it can be made compulsory .

"It is a good initiative by the Delhi government. It should have been done much before," said Dr Amir Ullah Khan, a Health Economist.

He said Health IDs are common in most developed nations and countries such as Indonesia and Thailand. "Ideally, the Central government should have done this to avoid multiplicity of work given that we already have an Aadhar card, voter ID card and PAN card among others," said Khan.

He said a health ID will allow mobility . "One will not be required to carry his or her medical records before seeing another doctor. He or she can simply walk in with the health card. Hospitals can do away with the system of issuing OPD cards," the Health economist added.
Sources said the Delhi Dialogue Commission is also working with the Government to come up with a universal health insurance plan for the state. The health ID, officials said, is the first step in the same direction.
The proposed insurance scheme, to be called Aam Aadmi Swasthya Bima Yojna (AASBY), will also be available to all. Times now