The NEHR is the national repository that collects and stores a copy of your selected health information across different healthcare providers. It contains important details about your medical history that healthcare professionals would generally need to make more informed medical decisions and deliver safe and better care.

It provides secure access to a patient’s summary health record by authorised clinicians and healthcare professionals to:

• Enable greater coordination and informed decision-making.
• Support more accurate diagnosis, better treatment, and patient-centric integrated care.
  ​

The goal of the NEHR is for patients to enjoy hassle-free healthcare delivery, higher quality of care, fewer duplicate or unnecessary tests and/ or referrals, reduced medical errors and adverse drug events.

To ensure security and confidentiality of patient data while the best care is provided, the NEHR enforces measures to authenticate, authorise and audit healthcare institutions and users’ access to patient's health record.

• Patient demographics
• Admission and visit history
• Discharge summaries
• Laboratory test results
• Radiology results
• Medication history
• History of surgeries or procedures
• Allergies and adverse drug reactions
• Healthier SG information
• COVID-19 records
  
   

All public healthcare institutions (restructured hospitals, polyclinics, and speciality centres), some private healthcare institutions (e.g. GPs, specialist centres and hospitals), community hospitals, nursing homes and government agencies that have requested to participate in the NEHR and were authorised by MOH are able to access the information in the NEHR. You can find the list of healthcare institutions participating in the NEHR here.

The NEHR is owned by the Ministry of Health of Singapore and managed by Synapxe, Singapore's HealthTech Agency.

The NEHR is a central repository which draws information from various contributing source systems and organises them in a summarised form which authorised clinicians and healthcare professionals can access.

With the backend system-to-system integration of the source IT systems to the NEHR, the data transmitted to the NEHR would be the same data entered into the system at source.

Any correction or updating of data would need to be done at contributing source. Data on the NEHR system is date-time stamped so it would be clear when the information was last updated.

While the NEHR serves as an excellent resource for healthcare professionals to support them in patient care, the patient needs to play their part by providing additional information, such as if they are consuming other medication bought from pharmacies or if they sought medical treatment overseas or if treatment was performed by sources not contributing to the NEHR.

NEHR adheres to stringent government security standards and undergoes regular independent audits, including vulnerability scans and penetration tests, to ensure compliance with the security standards for government-owned systems. To stay ahead of emerging threats, NEHR regularly participates in threat hunting and bug bounty programs to deliver a secure and trusted platform for all. 

Furthermore, systems that are required to connect to NEHR undergo a robust onboarding process to ensure that they have met the appropriate connectivity and security requirements before they are allowed to connect to NEHR.

Two-factor authentication using CorpPass is required for logging in to NEHR to ensure only authorised access. There are also features in the system to detect suspicious access and usage. Patients will also be able to view a log of accesses by their healthcare providers to their records in the NEHR through the NEHR Access History feature in HealthHub.

Audits are also being conducted for the NEHR system (e.g. regular user accounts review) and on NEHR access to ensure appropriate use of the NEHR.

NEHR potentially helps you to save time and money, as it reduces the need to take duplicate tests or scans at different healthcare institutions. MOH is also helping healthcare providers to defray some of their costs of upgrading their IT systems by making available various financial support schemes.

By default, all patients’ summary health records are sent through contributing systems that are integrated with the NEHR for seamless provision of care. Currently patient key health information from the public healthcare institutions is in the NEHR and we are working with private healthcare institutions for their contribution to the NEHR.

Access to the NEHR has to be authorised by MOH and is granted primarily to healthcare professionals who are involved in direct patient care such as doctors. In a GP clinic setting for example, clinic assistants would not be provisioned with an account as they do not provide direct patient care. All clinicians and healthcare professionals accessing the NEHR are also bound by law and professional ethics to keep patient health record strictly confidential.

Employers, insurers and patients are not granted with NEHR access.

To check whether the institutions you are visiting are given access to the NEHR or have started data contribution to the NEHR, please click here.

Yes, you will be able to see the access history via HealthHub (under the NEHR Access History section). The names of the private healthcare institutions and public healthcare clusters that have accessed your record in the NEHR will be listed in reverse-chronological manner for the past one year.

Please note that your healthcare professional is not required to access your NEHR during every visit; and also, access may be made before or after a scheduled visit. NEHR serves as a complementary tool, to aid the healthcare professional in history taking and medical examination, when making a clinical assessment.

The NEHR is intended primarily for the provision of patient care and provides continuity of care, especially when the patients move between institutions within the healthcare ecosystem. It provides a record of the patient’s journey with each healthcare encounter, viewable across the care continuum (e.g. polyclinics, hospitals, specialist clinics, GP) to support seamless transition of care. This will enable healthcare providers to provide more accurate diagnosis and better treatment.

The NEHR may not be used by doctors when writing medical reports for pre-employment medical screening and insurance claims. Doctors will have to rely on their own patient notes.

Data with the identities anonymised can be used for research and population insights purposes. Additionally, NEHR data can be used for purposes of public health, fulfilment of public functions and where legislatively required. These accesses have to be approved by MOH.

Access to the NEHR has to be authorised by MOH and is granted primarily to healthcare professionals who are involved in direct patient care such as doctors. In a GP clinic setting for example, clinic assistants would not be provisioned with an account as they do not provide direct patient care. All clinicians and healthcare professionals accessing the NEHR are also bound by law and professional ethics to keep patient health record strictly confidential.

Employers, insurers and patients are not granted with NEHR access.

To check whether the institutions you are visiting are given access to the NEHR or have started data contribution to the NEHR, please click here. 

Only the healthcare professionals authorised to access the NEHR and who are managing your care can access your health record for provision of care. The NEHR may not be used by doctors when writing medical reports for pre-employment medical screening and insurance claims.

Additionally, NEHR data can be used for purposes of public health, fulfilment of public functions and where legislatively required. These accesses have to be approved by MOH.

Patients have no direct access to the NEHR.

As a patient, you may access selected health information through HealthHub. At present, you are able to view the following information in the NEHR through HealthHub:

• Discharge summary
• Medications
• Immunisation 
• Laboratory results
• Radiology reports
  ​

As a caregiver (with consent granted by the patient through HealthHub), you may also view your loved ones’ health information, which includes school health records, school dental records and children immunisation records. 

For more information on the HealthHub, click here.

 

Health information is uploaded to the NEHR directly from the healthcare institutions. 

Addition or updates of your health information need to be generated and contributed to the NEHR based on your care episode with your healthcare provider.

Yes, you can place access restriction on your record in the NEHR.

 

By default, all patients' selected health information is sent through systems that are integrated with the NEHR for seamless provision of care.

 

The current process available is to obtain and submit the form at one of these departments in public healthcare institutions. Patients who wish to place access restriction will be counselled, to ensure that they fully understand the implications of this decision to their care as their providers will not have access to their records.

 

Once you have placed access restriction on your record in the NEHR,

 

• your record in the NEHR that is tied to your NRIC/FIN will be blocked from view to healthcare providers authorised with NEHR access, including those providing care to you.
• you will not be able to see your record in the NEHR via HealthHub.
• you will not be able to enrol in the Healthier SG programme.

Should you decide to remove the access restriction placed on your record in the NEHR subsequently, you may submit a form to do so and enjoy the benefits that the NEHR brings at one of these departments in public healthcare institutions.

To place or remove access restriction placed on your record in the NEHR, please approach one of these departments in public healthcare institutions. It does not have to be an institution that has your record. They will validate your identity in person and facilitate the process.

Since 2011, over 2,300 patients have placed access restriction on their records in the NEHR and more than 180 have removed access restriction placed after being counselled on the benefits of NEHR.