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Health – 14.8.2023
More than 78% of the Spanish population lives in an autonomous community fully connected to the services of the European Healthcare Network and all the autonomies have committed to incorporating them.
The Ministry of Health promotes the process of interoperability of clinical data that will allow the entire Spanish population to have access to their Summary Clinical Record (Patient Summary) and Electronic Prescription (e-Precription/e-Dispensation) from other countries of the European Union. As of today, more than 78% of the citizens of Spain live in an autonomous community fully connected to these services and all the autonomies have committed to advancing in this process coordinated by Health.
The Ministry has already signed the agreements for the incorporation of all the autonomous communities and cities of the country to the cross-border healthcare network in the European Union (E-Health Network). In this way, and reciprocally, the citizens of the Member States will also have this service in Spain.
The interoperability of the summarised clinical history and the prescription and dispensing of the electronic prescription are progressively implemented in the territories until it is a reality for all European citizens. In Spain, currently 13 communities and the two autonomous cities already have some service linked to this network active.
Communities with access to the EU electronic medical record and prescription
Specifically, the entire population integrated into the National Health System of Andalusia, Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Catalonia, the Community of Madrid, the Valencian Community, Galicia, Navarra, and the Basque Country can now share the summary of clinical history with the sanitary professionals from France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Croatia and Malta. In addition, Murcia and the Canary Islands are in the testing phase, as well as Greece, the Czech Republic and Estonia.
On the other hand, the European electronic prescription interoperability service is already active in Andalusia, Aragon, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Catalonia, the Community of Madrid, the Valencian Community, Extremadura, Galicia, Navarra, Basque Country, Ceuta and Melilla. Patients from these communities can obtain their prescriptions at participating pharmacies in Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Poland and Portugal that have the service. In addition, Asturias and Murcia are in the testing phase, as well as Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania.
Our country actively participates in this European Commission project from its initial design, contributing its interoperable summary clinical history and electronic prescription models of the National Health System that have served as a reference scheme for the EU. Similarly, Spain is a benchmark in its actual implementation, being one of the countries with the greatest deployment of these services.
Coordination with the autonomies
In turn, patients from countries that have these services can be cared for in the Spanish National Health System, having their pre-existing clinical information and accessing prescriptions for medicines that they have prescribed in their countries of origin in any of the Pharmacy offices of the aforementioned autonomous communities.
Once they have signed the agreement with the Ministry of Health, the regional health services are responsible for making the corresponding adaptations to their systems, following the criteria established by the European Commission and with the support of Health. After carrying out the pertinent tests, the Ministry validates the process and authorises each autonomous community to join the Service Node of the National Health System that operates, where the flows of clinical information of patients between Spain and Spain are ordered and managed between Spain and the EU countries.
Translation from the Spanish government press release.
