The Client Data Act was approved – awaiting the Government’s consideration and the President’s confirmation
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health has prepared the act on electronic processing of client data in social and health care. The Parliament initiated the bill in November 2020, and it was approved by Parliament on 28 May 2021 subject to changes proposed by the committee. The Client Data Act will have an impact on the sharing of client and patient data in the Kanta Services.
The act on electrical processing of client data in social and health care (the Client Data Act) will enter into force on 1 November 2021 at the earliest. It will have impacts of various degrees, e.g. on the act on client documents in social welfare and the act on electronic prescriptions.
As a result of the Client Data Act, client data will move within the healthcare and social welfare services between organisations if the client has given their consent to sharing the data and does not explicitly opt out of data sharing.
As a result of the new Client Data Act, it will also be compulsory to enter social welfare data in the Kanta Services. In addition, personal wellbeing data gathered by citizens would be available to the healthcare and social welfare professionals via Kanta if the citizen so wishes.
The current consent that enables data sharing within the healthcare service will be renamed as information sharing consent. Its purpose of use will remain unchanged also after the new act has entered into force.
A similar information sharing consent will also be applied to sharing of data within the social welfare services. Sharing of data between healthcare and social welfare services will be based on the client’s consent by virtue of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Kanta information meeting for healthcare and social welfare operators in the autumn
A Kanta information meeting for healthcare and social welfare operators concerning the impacts of the Client Data Act will be held on 7 September 2021. The implementation schedule of the changes will be published as further information becomes available.