74th Independence Day: PM Modi launches National Digital Health Mission, unique health ID for every citizen

Taking on the occasion of India’s 74th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched the National Digital Health Mission from the ramparts of the Red Fort. During his speech on the occasion, PM Modi said that the scheme will revolutionise the country’s health sector and every Indian will be given a unique digital identity that will work across the country and help her get access to private as well as government hospitals. Modi said the allotted ID will contain all the information about the past health conditions of a patient.

PM Modi said that every time a citizen would visit a doctor or a pharmacist, her unique ID would be logged in, which would contain all information about her past medical conditions, doctor appointments and medical prescriptions.

The National Digital Health Mission was announced by the government as part of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY). The unique medical identity provided under the scheme to every patient is envisaged to improve efficiency and cut a lot of paperwork which a patient has to take care of before visiting a new hospital. Patients visiting tertiary hospitals like AIIMS, JIMS will particularly be relieved as they are asked to produce all their medical prescriptions and past medical records by doctors at the hospital. The digital health id will come to aid the patients in this case as all their previous medical history and the treatment they were provided at the district and block level healthcare centres will be available on the portal.

However, soon after the contours of the scheme were announced by the government concerns about data privacy and possible data breach of sensitive medical records were raised. The government officials had said that all concerns about the data privacy will be taken into account and safeguard mechanisms would be built to take care of the privacy issues.