PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON THE HEALTH INFORMATION BILL
Ministry of Health
- Consultation Period:
- 11 Dec 2023 - 11 Jan 2024
- Status:
- Closed
Detailed Description
Public Consultation on the Health Information Bill
Introduction
1. The Ministry of Health (MOH) is conducting a public consultation from 11 December 2023 to 11 January 2024 to seek views on the proposed Health Information Bill ('HIB'). The HIB will establish the framework to govern the safe collection, access, use, and sharing of health information across the healthcare ecosystem, to facilitate better continuity and transition of care.
Background
2. In 2011, MOH introduced the National Electronic Health Record (NEHR) as a centralised health information repository to provide healthcare providers with a holistic and longitudinal view of a patient’s health history. Our public healthcare institutions were early adopters, and private healthcare institutions have progressively adopted the use of NEHR over the years.
3. For Singapore residents to fully benefit from the collection and sharing of accurate and comprehensive healthcare data, MOH will introduce the HIB in the first half of 2024 to achieve three main objectives:
| S/N | Recommendations | Brief Description | Benefits |
| a) | Ensure that health information is kept updated, accurate, and accessible | The Bill will mandate all healthcare providers licensed under the Healthcare Services Act (HCSA) and approved contributors to contribute selected and accurate patient health information to the NEHR. Access to the NEHR data will also be granted to licensed healthcare providers and approved users for patient care purposes. | Establishing an up-to-date centralised record which healthcare providers can access enables the delivery of seamless, coordinated, and appropriate care. Patients benefit from the reduced duplicative tests, investigations, and need to repeat their full medical history to different healthcare providers. This saves time and costs. |
| b) | Establish a robust framework for the sharing of health information | The Bill will simplify the health data sharing framework and provide greater clarity on the boundaries of data sharing. This will help facilitate the flow of information between providers and to selected social care services for patient care purposes. | Shared heath information improves the efficiency and quality of patient care. It supports care continuity for patients moving between primary or specialist care, acute and community care providers. It enables more timely preventive care measures and social support under national health initiatives such as Healthier SG. |
| c) | Set out the relevant data security and cybersecurity requirements that healthcare providers must comply with. | The Bill will set in place cybersecurity and data security safeguards to govern the collection, access, use and sharing of health information which healthcare providers will have to comply with. Healthcare providers who use the health information must also comply with requirements to report any cybersecurity incidents and/or data breaches. | Residents can be assured of privacy safeguards that includes measures to protect patient privacy and measures protect against the accidental or malicious leakage of health information. Sensitive medical data will be handled securely and confidentially with robust cyber and data security measures in place. |
Public Consultation
4. MOH has consulted extensively with various stakeholders (including members of the public, our licensees, healthcare professionals, and IT vendors) over the past year to develop these recommended policy positions and provisions.
5. Your feedback will help us to review and refine our policies for the Bill and enable us to build an even more robust digitalised healthcare system for everyone.
6. The consultation exercise
will end on 11 January 2024, 6pm. Interested parties can submit their feedback
through FormSG.
7. For more details on the HIB, please visit https://healthinfo.gov.sg. If you have any queries, please email HIA_Enquiries@moh.gov.sg.