NEW DELHI: All Indian citizens visiting health and wellness centres will be issued electronic health cards with unique identification numbers that will store information such as medical history, ongoing treatment and prescription details, the government has decided.
Officials in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the move was aimed at creating a unique individual health report for every citizen and further strengthen the health information management system.
The government had in the Budget this year announced a scheme under Ayushman Bharat through which 1.5 lakh sub-centres—the smallest units of government healthcare delivery system—would be upgraded into wellness centres.
These centres, one of which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Chhattisgarh earlier this month, will act as healthcare consultation centres for several medical conditions, including non-communicable diseases and screenings for some cancers.
“It is through these centres that we want to issue and popularise health cards to speed up patient care services,” a senior health ministry official told Express.
The benefit of the card can be understood from the fact that if an unconscious patient is taken to a hospital and has his health card with him, the doctors can readily access the information about his or her health status,” the official said.
Another official explained that doctors often have to treat unconscious patients brought to hospital emergency wards without any knowledge of their health problems such as diabetes. Such situation, which sometimes results in the death of the patients, can be prevented by these cards. “When the patient’s e-health card is scanned, all his/her health information o will be available, making it easy for the doctors to treat the person,” he said.
The move comes closely after the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi announced a similar scheme to provide all citizens with a health card. As per an expression of interest floated in February, the Delhi government had said these cards would be provided cards to all residents, including toddlers and senior citizens, through which they will get free medical services in all state-run healthcare institutions, including mohalla clinics.