Doctors lack access to patient data via identification number
The Ministry of Health on Tuesday announced a temporarily suspension of the possibility for doctors to access patient data in doctors' office systems based on their Polish identification number (PESEL).
Private broadcaster TVN reported that any doctor can easily check on the government website data on any patient, e.g. what drugs the patient takes, when they were prescribed and when they were purchased. The Supreme Medical Council believes that this is a threat to patient safety.
On Tuesday evening, the Ministry of Health announced that access to medical data on prescriptions is available to authorized medical staff issuing prescriptions - doctors and nurses.
"Due to information that some of these people could abuse access to data, we decided to temporarily suspend the possibility for doctors to access data in office systems based on the PESEL number," the ministry informed on X (formerly Twitter).
"Access will be suspended until the e-Health Center launches a functionality presenting information in the Patient's Online Account (IKP) about cases of access to patient data," the ministry tweeted.
Earlier this month, TVN screened footage about patients in the city of Poznan being unable to receive pain killers due to new prescription regulations which came into force on August 2.
The doctor commenting on the situation, Piotr Pisula, said he was unable to prescribe the necessary medication. Health Minister Adam Niedzielski later published Pisula's personal data on X along with claims that he had prescribed the restricted medication in his own name
