The Valencian Community will be the first autonomous region in Spain to join the European Electronic Medical Record project, which will allow healthcare providers throughout the EU to access a summary of the medical records of European citizens to facilitate health care, especially unscheduled care.
This was announced by the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, after visiting the Clinical Hospital of Valencia together with the President of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig.
The program is still taking the first steps since it is only fully operational in Portugal, but it is already in the testing process in France and “in June 2022 other countries such as Malta and the Czech Republic, Croatia and Luxembourg will join”, explained Darias.
“When a patient travels to one of these countries or vice versa, with prior consent, the professional can access their medical history and will allow them to see if they have allergies or know what treatment they have. This European project places us at the forefront of the Valencian Community and to Spain”, assured Darias. It will be a tool to “travel more safely to Europe, since professionals will have the ability to act more quickly and efficiently”, according to the president of the Generalitat, Ximo Puig.
Within this project, the European Clinical Record also allows patients to download a European Patient Summary in English and take it with them when they travel through Europe and present it if necessary. In Valencia, this option has been operational and since May 2021, 16,546 of these reports have been downloaded, according to sources from the Ministry of Health.
