Health services go online

A number of health services are to start being provided online through eHealth, an internet portal set up by two government ministries.

The project was announced at a press conference yesterday by Information Technology Minister Austin Gatt and Health Minister Louis Deguara.

Dr Gatt said the portal would allow individuals to apply for the European Health Insurance Card and doctors to apply for outpatients' appointments at hospital for his patients. Dr Deguara said the system would do away with the bureaucracy associated with the scheduling of outpatient appointments.

Among other services on offer, there would also be free access to trustworthy medical information through an accredited medical encyclopaedia.

Dr Gatt said eHealth, together with the integrated health information system which the government hoped to have found a strategic partner for by June, were part of a strategy for electronic health that the two ministries would soon be concluding and publishing.

www.ehealth.gov.mt