People who use the health and social care services are to be given a unique identity number.
The Individual Health Identifiers are part of a new scheme by HIQA to improve patient safety; reduce duplication and mistakes; and provide data to help improve planning.
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The system will be operated by the HSE and it will be responsible for safely storing all personal data – no clinical information will be recorded with the number.
Acting Director of Health Information with HIQA Rachel Flynn says most other countries have a similar system in place already and Ireland is lagging behind.
