A copy of the myHealth consent form, to be given to doctors by their patients, is an insert in today’s The Sunday Times of Malta.

Patients waiting for medical test results carried out at hospital can now give their family doctor permission to access these records online only days after the results are first published.

The Health Ministry has in the past few months been working on fine-tuning the myHealth initiative – a government service that allows patients to grant their private GPs permission to access their medical information.

Both the doctor and the patient will need to use their e-ID to gain access to the online service.

“Over the years, we realised that while doctors were making use of the service, there were very few patients who made use of it, because the process of gaining access proved too cumbersome for them,” Health Minister Chris Fearne told The Sunday Times of Malta, adding that this was especially true for elderly patients.

Over four years, of all the patients in Malta, there were only some 1,600 making use of the service, Mr Fearne added.

Working with the Data Protection Commissioner, the ministry decided to update the system such that while doctors will still be required to make use of their e-ID to gain access to the online portal, patients will not.

“Patients can now fill in a consent form and, using their ID card number, give their doctor permission to access the records. They can, at any time, withdraw consent and go to another doctor,” the minister said. He added that patients can only link to one doctor at a time.

According to Mr Fearne, some 12,000 patients and 150 doctors had already signed up for the newly designed service since it was introduced in November.

The ministry will be launching a campaign to further promote the service in the coming weeks, aiming to bring the number of users to 20,000 at first – with the ultimate target of having 100,000 patients sign up.

Through the setting up of such a service, Mr Fearne said, family doctors working at clinics in the different localities would be better integrated into the health system.

“As for the patients, this is extremely beneficial, because say you had an MRI test at Mater Dei, you would normally have to wait for an outpatient appointment that could take months in order to be given the results,” he said.

Through this service, patients can ask their GP to view the results as soon as they are available. Instead of having to wait for months on end, they would be able to get their hands on them in a matter of days.

Doctors will also be able to use the myHealth service to order tests that need to be carried out at the hospital, while also having full access to the medication prescribed.

“If a patient goes to Mater Dei and the medication is changed and something isn’t clear or the patient is confused, they can go to their doctor, who will be able to view all the changes,” Mr Fearne said, adding that this would ensure better continuity of care for all patients.