Medical records to start voluntarily

Plans to create a central database for medical records have been relaunched but have not impressed health workers.

Health minister Roselyne Bachelot said the voluntary system whereby patients sign up via the internet to open their own medical records would be operating by 2009.

Each person would have their own individual number for their dossier médical personnel (DMP). Ms Bachelot said the programme would “help co-operation between health professionals.”

France currently has no system whereby medical records and other information can be shared by healthcare professionals.

The DMP will be accessible by patients and doctors via a secure internet connection. The cost of the project is estimated at €900 million between 2009 and 2012 and could reach €100million a year by 2012. Ms Bachelot said the system was “a tool of healthcare” not a money saving measure.

As well as keeping accounts of medical treatment the DMP system could also be used to send out reminders to people to renew prescriptions and go for examinations and screenings.

The DMP would also be used to help coordinate organ donation and operate as a diary for those receiving treatment.

The Comité consultatif national d'éthique said that the DMP in its current state would not hit its target of improving efficiency and helping health professional to work together.

The committee criticised the project saying it was possible that a patient could manipulate the dossier, hiding certain details.

“What use is a medical record where the holder can delete certain pieces of information which could be essential to medical staff?” said a report by the committee.

It also attacked the lack of an emergency procedure where doctors could consult the medical records if a patient was unconscious.

“The problem of masking details and lack of overrides represent a principle of patient authority that could run counter to their interests,” said the committee.

The government attempted to introduce centralised medical records to France in 2004. The failed project included financial penalties for those who did not open their own dossier - an idea that has been scrapped in its latest incarnation.

In 2007 a financial audit concluded that the idea needed to be relaunched.