The Electronic Health Record (eHR) Office organised a visit to an elderly home for the Legislative Council ("LegCo") Panel on Health Services on 21 February 2017 to provide them with more understanding about the use and benefits of the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (eHRSS), which was launched in March 2016.

The visit was conducted at the Caritas Harold HW Lee Care and Attention home, a residential home for the elderly that joined the eHRSS last year under the Registration Campaign for Elderly Homes. An on-site demonstration was conducted to brief Members about the use and operations of eHRSS. Users of eHRSS including private practitioner and patient representatives were also invited to share with Members their experience and views towards the system.

The Permanent Secretary for Food and Health (Health), Mr Patrick NIP, remarked during the opening address that the response of the community to eHRSS had been encouraging since its launch.

"In less than a year, nearly 400,000 members of the public have joined the system. More than 1,100 private healthcare provider organisations, including all 11 local private hospitals, have registered with eHRSS. As we will proceed to seek Finance Committee ("FC")'s funding approval for the Stage 2 eHRSS, we sincerely look forward to Members' continuous support to our programme so that the public can further benefit from the extended services of eHRSS."

The Government submitted the Stage 2 eHR development proposal to the Panel on Health Services on 16 January 2017, and Members have indicated their support to the proposal. The Government's plan is to seek FC's funding approval in the first half of 2017 and commence development work afterwards.

Members participating in the visit included Chairman of the Panel, Prof Hon Joseph LEE; Deputy Chairman of the Panel, Dr Hon Pierre CHAN; Hon Paul TSE, Hon Charles Peter MOK, Dr Hon Elizabeth QUAT and Hon YUNG Hoi-yan who are Panel Members.