MEDICAL staff will be able to find out vital information about their patients at the touch of a button when the Manx Emergency Care Record comes into force.

The system - which health officials stress is highly secure - will be introduced in the next couple of months.

But patients can opt out of the scheme if they wish.

While an exact figure has not been released, the capital cost, including future development aspects, works out at just under £7 per head of population with an annual maintenance cost of 75p per person.

Based on a population figure of 80,000 the capital cost would be around £560,000 and the annual maintenance would be £60,000.

Information will be going out to all households in the Island next week.

Health Minister David Anderson said: "In an emergency situation it will undoubtedly greatly improve the level of patient care that emergency staff will be able to provide, as they'll have access to vital information that a patient has agreed can be seen by emergency care staff.

"Time is of the essence for many of the situations our medical staff deal with.

"If a patient is unconscious for example, but has an allergy to certain medication, emergency medical staff will soon be able to access this critical information from one consolidated electronic location."

The care record would contain the patients name, date of birth and contact details, GP name and practice details, patient's NHS number, information about any prescribed medicines and any known significant or adverse reaction to medicine, allergies or known sensitivities.

It may come as a surprise to many people that vital medical information is already not shared in this way, while others may not be keen on this information being made available, even though it will be kept in a highly secure environment with a fully audited system where all access to the MECRs are recorded.

Mr Anderson added: "I fully appreciate that not everyone may want to have such details available, so it is important that any residents who wish to opt out do so by completing the form in the leaflet being delivered to all households and returning it to their GP practice.

"What I would emphasise is that this project aims to improve access to important information in an emergency situation and has been devised solely in the interest of helping patients.

"It is not a case of 'Big Brother,' my department is simply bringing existing information together in one electronic system so that it can be more easily accessed in emergency situations.

"For as many people who wish to opt out, there may equally be as many who are surprised that such a system such as the MECR is not already in place.

"At the moment, critical information held with a GP won't necessarily be accessible should someone present themselves at Noble's Hospital's accident and emergency department.

"I would stress that should any Isle of Man resident be considering opting out of the MECR they need to carefully balance the benefits over any concerns they may have.

"The information in the MECR is already available in several health systems - what the MECR does in an emergency situation is enable us to improve emergency care by pulling it all together."

Even people who are in the scheme will be asked for permission by health officials to look at the MECR before they do so.

The only exception to this would be if someone is unconscious or incapable and authorised staff could look at the MECR without agreement.