Tag Archives: China

     The Government announced today (March 19) that the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (Amendment) Bill 2025 will be gazetted on Friday (March 21). The Bill aims to refine the existing legal framework of the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHealth) to tie in with and support its function enhancements and continuous development.

     The Bill seeks to amend the Electronic Health Record Sharing System Ordinance (Cap. 625) to expand and enhance the data collection, sharing, usage and protection mechanism of eHealth, in tandem with the “eHealth+” five-year development plan. “eHealth+” serves to transform eHealth into a comprehensive healthcare information infrastructure to complement the healthcare reform, including promoting primary healthcare, improving workflow efficiency and facilitating cross-boundary services, thereby providing citizens with more coherent and high-quality healthcare services.

Building a comprehensive personal electronic health record (eHR) for citizens

     The Bill will provide a legal framework for building a comprehensive personal eHR for citizens, including streamlining the consent mechanism. Once citizens agree to join eHealth, their healthcare providers (HCPs) will be able to deposit health data into their personal eHealth accounts. Meanwhile, citizens will continue to retain full control over their personal data and can grant individual HCPs access to their eHealth records at their own will. 

     At present, most private HCPs have registered with eHealth and frequently access the records with individual citizens’ consent, but only a few would deposit records of the services provided into citizens’ eHealth accounts. The Bill will empower the Secretary for Health to require specified HCPs to deposit important specified health data into the personal eHealth accounts of citizens registered with eHealth. Such arrangement can assist citizens in obtaining their records from HCPs and enhance service efficiency. 

Supporting primary healthcare development and service process management

     To support the development of primary healthcare services provided by multi-disciplinary teams, the Bill will expand the scope of healthcare professionals (HCProfs) who can access health data on eHealth. In addition to the existing 13 types of HCProfs subject to statutory registration, HCProfs registered with the accredited professional bodies under the Department of Health’s Accredited Registers Scheme for Healthcare Professions, and other specified HCProfs that provide healthcare in healthcare facilities controlled or managed by the Government and the Hospital Authority (such as the District Health Centres under the Primary Healthcare Commission) will also be included. With citizens’ consents, these HCProfs may access their health data on eHealth when providing healthcare for them. 

     Electronic medical documents, including medical certificates, prescriptions, and healthcare referrals, can reduce the risk of losing paper documents and facilitate convenient access and use of the documents by citizens. The Bill will provide a clear legal framework for governing electronic medical documents issued or authenticated through eHealth, and enabling the Government to designate eHealth as the only platform for issuing certain medical documents under appropriate circumstances, in order to facilitate the centralised management and support the usage of these documents. 

Supporting citizens in using healthcare services across the boundary

     The use of cross-boundary healthcare services has become increasingly common among citizens. At present, citizens can self-carry their own eHRs for cross-boundary uses via the eHealth mobile application. To better support citizens’ needs, the Bill will introduce provisions to provide for the recognition of individual HCPs and public health record systems outside Hong Kong (e.g. service providers under the Elderly Health Care Voucher Greater Bay Area Pilot Scheme), subject to sufficient protection of data privacy and system security as well as due compliance with specified requirements and conditions. This will enable citizens to use their eHRs across the boundary in a more convenient and secure manner. 

     If an individual citizen uses services at a recognised HCP outside Hong Kong, he/she can choose to authorise the HCP to securely access his/her eHealth records and deposit the health records of the services received into his/her personal eHealth account, with a view to enhancing the quality and safety of cross-boundary healthcare services. HCPs outside Hong Kong can only access and deposit citizens’ eHealth records when a registered citizen provides explicit consent when using its services. Under no other circumstances will eHealth records be transmitted across the boundary.

Refining the legal provisions for the access and use of eHealth data

     The Bill will also refine the legal provisions governing the access and use of eHealth data. Among other things, the Bill will empower the Government and other authorised persons to use identifiable data in eHealth for the purposes of enrolling citizens in, administering, and evaluating government healthcare programmes. The Bill will also specify that citizens and specified categories of related persons, such as parents of minors and authorised caregivers, may provide to and obtain eHealth records of the citizen, thereby empowering citizens’ self-management of health records.

     The Bill will be introduced into the Legislative Council for First Reading on March 26. read more

     The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (March 19) announced the results of a risk assessment study on T-2 toxins, HT-2 toxins and 4,15-diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS) in food. The … read more

     Special traffic arrangements will be implemented in Happy Valley today (March 19). The arrangements will last until the crowds have dispersed after the race meeting. A. Traffic arrangements before the commencement of the first race      … read more

     â€‹The Labour Department (LD) is holding an online exhibition from 9am today (March 19) to 6pm on March 21 on the LD’s website disseminating information about the Employment Ordinance and the Minimum Wage Ordinance to enhance the public’s understanding of employment rights and benefits.
 
     Consolidating the content of physical exhibitions held by the LD, the online exhibition features the main provisions of the Employment Ordinance and the Minimum Wage Ordinance, employment rights and benefits for foreign domestic helpers, as well as good human resource management measures. The relevant hyperlink is www.labour.gov.hk/common/Online_exhibition_EO_MWO/index_en.html. read more

​     To echo the 10th National Security Education Day, the Security Bureau’s eight disciplined services and auxiliary services will hold open days in their training schools, museum, headquarters or divisional premises on different weekends and holidays in April to deepen the public’s understanding of the services as well as their work and achievements in safeguarding national security through their open days and activities. Starting from today (March 19), members of the public can register for free admission tickets via the relevant disciplined services’ websites or mobile applications. Admission ticket is not required for the open days of the auxiliary services.

     The Immigration Service Institute of Training and Development, the Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum and Community Education Experience Centre, and the Civil Aid Service Headquarters will be opened to the public on April 12; the Hong Kong Police Museum, the Fire and Ambulance Services Academy, and the Kai Tak Division of the Government Flying Service will be opened on April 13; the Hong Kong Customs College, April 18; while the Auxiliary Medical Service Headquarters, April 27.

     Various activities will be organised by the services on the open days, including flag raising ceremonies, Chinese-style foot drills, rescue demonstrations, displays of firearms and equipment, working dogs’ demonstrations and game booths. These activities will help members of the public to learn more about the services’ work in preventing and defending against national security risks and raise public awareness of national security, create a favourable atmosphere for safeguarding national security and cultivate law-abiding awareness.

     Members of the public are welcome to visit the websites or mobile applications of the relevant services for more information on the open days, and register to obtain tickets. Successful applicants will receive notifications from the organisers.

     Open day venues on April 12 (Saturday):

	Immigration Service Institute of Training and Development	Hong Kong Correctional Services Museum and Community Education Experience Centre	Civil Aid Service Headquarters
Ticket registration	March 24 to March 31	March 26 to April 1	No tickets required
Registration links will be available on the platforms listed on the right upon commencement of registration	Immigration Department’s website	Correctional Services Department’s website

     Open day venues on April 13 (Sunday):

	Hong Kong Police Museum	Fire and Ambulance Services Academy	Government Flying Service Kai Tak Division
Ticket registration	March 19	March 31 to April 2	April 2 and 3
Registration links will be available on the platforms listed on the right upon commencement of registration	Hong Kong Police Force’s website	Fire Services Department’s mobile application	Government Flying Service’s website

 
     Open day venues on April 18 (Friday) and April 27 (Sunday):
 

	Hong Kong Customs College (April 18)	Auxiliary Medical Service Headquarters (April 27)
Ticket registration	March 31 to April 2	No tickets required
Registration links will be available on the platforms listed on the right upon commencement of registration	Customs and Excise Department’s website

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