THE House Committee on Health approved Tuesday an unnumbered substitute bill establishing the National e-Health System and a bill creating the National Health Passport System.
The substitute bill consolidates House Bills 61, 171 and 665 which seek to establish an integrated approach to tracking health records and treatment histories.
The bill outlines a national e-Health system which will set policies and regulations to “reduce inequality, achieve universal health care and improve health outcomes.” The e-Health system will also enable the public to better manage its own health.
Assistant Health Secretary Enrique A. Tayag said e-Health makes care more accessible, adding that “it is recognized as a strategic intervention to help policy making, institutions of transparency and accountability, and program implementation.”
House Bill 8, written by Speaker Alan Peter S. Cayetano, aims to provide each Filipino with a document “that reflects each individual’s full medical history and other relevant data.”
In the bill’s explanatory note, the Speaker said the health passport “cautions the patient to be aware of his congenital or hereditary illness” which enables him to make the necessary preparations to prevent further complications of his illness.
“To use the health passport, all the patient has to do, is to present it whenever he/she avails of the medical services of any public hospital, clinic, or other medical institutions. This document also intends to assist the doctor examining the patient’s medical condition, either in private or public medical facility” he said. — Genshen L. Espedido
