The Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine will launch issuing e-Health cards from Kalutara district today (21).

Accordingly, under the patronage of Minister Rajitha Senaratne, e-Health cards will be introduced at the Nagoda General Hospital, Kalutara, Beruwala Divisional Hospital at and at the Bandaragam District Hospital.

This programme is carried out by the same company that had launched the e-Health card distribution in Andhra Pradesh, India and under its first phase, 200 hospitals would initially issue e-Health cards to the public.

Reportedly, computerizing the medical records of hospitals across the country has commenced already under the instructions of the Minister Senaratne.

The Health Minister expects to get the records of nearly 300 hospitals into a computerized system by the end of 2019 and to issue e-Health cards for the 21-million local population within six months.

E-Health cards allow a patient to get treated by any doctor across the country without delay, as the patient’s full records are inserted in the e-Health card.

The Health Minister has instructed the Director of Information Technology at the Ministry of Health Dr Indika Jagoda to take measures to resolve the issues related to e-Health cards within a 2-month period.

The Health Ministry has also collaborated with the Department for Registration of Persons for this programme.

Minister Senaratne pointed out that the patients are able to use the e-Health card to receive medical treatment from private clinics and private hospitals as well.

The Health Ministry has further planned to introduce the concept of ‘family physician’ parallel to this programme.

Accordingly, a physician will be assigned for every 10,000 citizens and at the initial step, the physician will examine each patient within a year to make the necessary diagnosis on them.

Following this initial step, the family physician will be conducting medical checkups on the patients assigned for him every six months, the Health Minister stated.

These checkups will also concern the records inserted in e-Health cards.