A parliamentary majority on Thursday voted in favour of introducing a centralised digital medical record system, reports ANP news agency.

Under the scheme known as EPD, doctors and other healthcare providers will be connected to a central computer system which will enable them to access medical information about patients.
MPs agreed yesterday that joining the network, which is expected to be up and running by the spring of 2010, will be compulsory for medical staff but patients can opt out of the system.
Patients who wish to access their own medical files will only be able to do so with the permission of the doctor treating them, MPs decided yesterday,
Health minister Ab Klink told MPs he will do everything to ensure the privacy of patients. Earlier this week he said that hackers have been asked to find loopholes in the system and make sure that access to individual files is properly secure.
See too:
Patients protest at digital file opt-out costs
Digital patient files could be ‘IT nightmare’