Bulgarian well being authorities are getting ready to introduce everlasting quick entry for residents to their well being recordsdata by way of cell phones, as a measure to fight widespread corruption and healthcare funds abuses.

Currently, residents can get cell entry to their well being information if they’ve a professional digital signature, however lower than 10% of residents within the nation have been ready to take action.

This compelled the Ministry of Health to suggest an choice that can open up the likelihood for virtually each citizen who owns a smartphone or pill to entry their digital well being recordsdata on a cell system by activating an software referred to as “e-Health”.

The system will enable entry to the digital well being file by scanning a QR code and a one-time pairing of the file with the cell software put in.”After pairing, the person will mechanically obtain the opportunity of a number of cell entry. The proposed entry system doesn’t require particular technical data for residents,” the Ministry of Health commented.

Civil management

Facilitated entry to the digital well being document in Bulgaria has been awaited for a few years because of the must strengthen civil management over the well being system. Permanent entry will enable customers to be notified instantly of examinations, assessments, hospitalisations, prescribed and acquired medicine.

Citizens can have the chance to alert well being inspection if medical providers are entered within the file, however not carried out.

The Bulgarian well being system has had severe issues with the registration of false hospitalisations, examinations, prescription, and different medical providers, which illegally drain the state well being fund.

“The current situation does not give citizens the opportunity to control the performed medical activities that affect them personally. With the impossibility of tracking and accessing the data on the medical services provided to them and the medical documents issued, citizens are placed in a passive position and unable to effectively protect their rights as patients,” the Ministry of Health commented.

Doctors object

However, the Bulgarian Medical Union (BMU) has spoken out towards offering fast cell entry to well being recordsdata due to the QR code pairing process.

“There is no guarantee for the security of patients’ personal data if access to their health file is done by pairing with a QR code. The responsibility is too great, and there is a real danger of leaking sensitive information,” the Bulgarian Medical Union, which is the one official organisation of docs in Bulgaria, commented.

The docs’ union protested that the GPs could be tasked with pairing affected person’s recordsdata with the cell app, which might be extra work for them. The Bulgarian docs organisation said: “It is unacceptable and extremely inappropriate to impute additional duties to GPs, which are entirely non-medical and are in no way part of the diagnostic and treatment process.”

Private co-payments and corruption

Over 60% of Bulgarians don’t consider that it’s attainable to obtain good well being service and remedy with out extra cost, and one other 45% are satisfied that that is solely attainable if one has private connections in medical circles.

These findings are a part of a large-scale consultant survey of public opinion in regards to the Bulgarian well being care system, carried out by the National Centre for Parliamentary Research and printed in early November 2023.

Bulgaria allocates the smallest share of its GDP to healthcare, main to large personal co-payments for remedy by Bulgarian residents and conflicts within the healthcare system, in keeping with analysis by Euractiv. The Bulgarian well being system works on a solidarity foundation, and well being contributions are 8% of the wage.

According to information from the Bulgarian Association for Patient Protection, EU international locations at present spend a mean of 9% of GDP on healthcare. Bulgaria is near this stage of healthcare spending (€9 billion in whole), however half of the quantity is paid immediately by the residents, although they pay their well being contributions to the state.

The sociological company Market Links’ survey on 11 March confirmed that well being care is already Bulgarian voters’ main precedence, overtaking the struggle towards corruption.

[By Krassen Nikolov, Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab]

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