Finns’ health info becomes available in Spain for treatment

The Finnish authority made it possible to transfer patient data via the Kanta Services to Spanish healthcare providers from Monday, said the national social insurance institution- Kela in a press release on Tuesday.

Spanish healthcare providers will be able to access Finns’ patient data when providing treatment making it easier to visit a doctor in Spain.

It will only be possible to use the data if the patient gives consent in MyKanta.

Travellers may sometimes encounter health issues that require medical attention.

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 prescriptions, allergies, diagnoses.

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.

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 of Kela.