Part of 3. 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport – in the Senedd at 3:02 pm on 21 June 2017.
I’m happy to write you with the detail of the points you’ve raised, rather than trying to reach into the depths of my memory to do so. What I will say is that the broad points you raise about the potential for improvement, about the safety and security of patient information and understanding the trade-off between that and the benefit that can be gained from the sharing of that information are significant features in every single development we undertake, because we actually recognise the risk to patients in not having a more seamless transfer of information between health and care professionals. And actually, most members of the public expect this information to be provided in that way already. The challenge, really, is how the service catches up in actually meeting that expectation and the clear desire from the public to do so.
There’s also something about cultural change as well, and an understanding that patient records are patient records, and not healthcare records that they hold about people. Actually, in the past—there’s something about how we shift that culture so citizens take more control over their own healthcare information and are able to make different choices as a result of it. So, there’s a big cultural challenge, both for members of the public to participate in their healthcare in a different way, but also for healthcare professionals to do so as well. But I’m happy to write to you on the three specific points that you mentioned in your question.