Can I refuse access to or sharing of my NEHR records?

If you do not want any healthcare professional to access your health record, you can choose to restrict access to your NEHR records. Once access is restricted, healthcare professionals must not access your NEHR records even for care purposes. You can already restrict such access to NEHR records today by opting out of the NEHR.

Under the proposed HIB in future, a healthcare professional may choose to override the access restriction to provide you with life-saving treatment during a medical emergency. In such a scenario, the healthcare professional must first assess whether you face an immediate and serious threat to life or risk of severe, irreversible harm unless medical intervention is provided.

MOH will audit cases where your access restriction is overridden by the healthcare professional. Healthcare professionals who inappropriately override access restrictions to NEHR records may be subject to legal penalties under the HIB and disciplinary action from the respective professional bodies, such as the Singapore Medical Council.

What happens after I exercise my access restriction rights?

While healthcare professionals will be blocked from accessing your NEHR records, the background contribution of selected health information to NEHR will continue. This ensures that there will be no gaps in your NEHR record if you choose to remove the access restriction in future.

The ability to place access restrictions on your NEHR records is intended to uphold your autonomy and privacy. If you restrict access to your NEHR records, your doctor will not be able to access them for your care needs.

Today, you can already check the NEHR Access History in HealthHub, to see if your NEHR records have been accessed.

If you wish to restrict access, more details on the opt-out process is available in the FAQs by Synapxe.