Swiss National Council approves new electronic health dossier

Switzerland’s National Council has approved a new electronic health dossier, which supporters say could revive the country’s stalled efforts to digitise healthcare, SRF reported. The bill will now go to the Council of States.

The dossier would be provided automatically and free of charge to everyone living in Switzerland. People who do not want one would have to opt out explicitly.

The proposed system would use a single central technical infrastructure, financed and further developed by the federal government and the cantons. Patients would deal with one central organisation, whose costs would be covered by the cantons.

The federal government would be responsible for data security. Patients would decide who could access their records, while all healthcare providers, including doctors and therapists, would have to offer the dossier and enter information into it. Providers who failed to do so could be fined.

The National Council also approved additional data protection measures. Only personal data needed to operate the system could be processed.

The proposal faced opposition from most of the Swiss People’s Party. National councillor Andreas Glarner warned of unresolved costs, possible cyberattacks and a series of overlapping projects, including the existing electronic patient record, the future electronic health dossier, the Swiss Health Data Space, transitional funding and a new central organisation with a technical operator yet to be chosen.

The National Council’s Finance Committee had previously criticised the estimated costs as insufficiently precise and transparent. Glarner said Parliament was being asked to approve the project without knowing its full cost.

The bill received a clear majority in the National Council, but its final approval remains pending in the Council of States.