Finns’ health data will become available in Spain in connection with treatment

Travellers may sometimes encounter health issues that require medical attention. From 23 September, it will be easier to visit a doctor in Spain as Spanish healthcare providers will be able to access Finns’ patient data when providing treatment.

At this stage, the service is only available in parts of Spain, including the Costa del Sol, the Canary Islands, Catalonia and the Madrid area.

Spanish healthcare providers will not have direct access to all of a Finnish patient’s data; they will only see a summary of key patient data. The summary contains information about e.g., prescriptions, allergies, diagnoses. The patient’s data can be used only if they have given their consent to do so in MyKanta.

Patient and prescription data are also transferred elsewhere in Europe

Estonia was the first EU country to be able to utilize Finnish patient data, with Estonian healthcare able to access the data since June 2024. In three months, consent to the transfer of patient data has been granted almost 12,000 times in MyKanta.

Finnish e-prescriptions have been valid for the purchase of medicines abroad since 2019. The service is particularly popular with travellers to Estonia and Spain, which are some of Finns’ favourite travel destinations.

The cross-border transfer of health data makes it easier to provide healthcare

In the future, Finnish healthcare providers will also be able to retrieve European patient data from their patients’ home countries. The precise schedule for the implementation of the service depends on the development of patient information systems.

“The cross-border sharing of patient data facilitates the treatment of patients travelling or immigrating to Finland from abroad. The patient summary provides professionals with an immediate overview of the patient’s medical history, translated into their own language. This helps professionals to make decisions about treatment and gives a clearer overview of the patient’s health. In the summary, professionals can see the patient's previous diagnoses and procedures, which improves the quality of care and increases patient safety,” says Paavo Kauranne, product owner of the Kanta Services at Kela.

Additional information for media

• Sending Patient Summaries abroad (kanta.fi)
• Purchasing prescription medicines abroad (kanta.fi)
• Health services abroad (https://www.eu-healthcare.fi/)
• Cross-border e-Health (health.ec.europa.eu)
• European Health Data Space (health.ec.europa.eu)