Changes to enter La Meva Salut: "It will work like the Netflix account"

BarcelonaAs if it were a Netflix account, starting in January 2025, the La Meva Salut application will add profile options to be able to manage health appointments for more than one person from a single mobile phone. It is the same system as audiovisual platforms where families can add several profiles so that each member sees the offer that suits them best with a single login. Since these are very sensitive personal data, however, the managers of third-party accounts must have been previously authorized by these holders.

The Department of Health thus clarifies the information that, from its own channels, indicated that in the coming months access to La Meva Salut would no longer be done with personal passwords and would be done through the IdCAT Mòbil, a digital identification system for online procedures and management with Catalan administrations, which can only be linked to one phone number and one identity document. This change had caused a great stir among children of elderly people or parents with adult children with intellectual disabilities because they would no longer be able to continue requesting appointments at the CAP or consulting medical information about their relatives from their mobile terminal.

Elisenda Serra, director of the citizenship and user area of the Catalan Health Service, explains to ARA that at the beginning of next year—the date has not been specified—it is expected that a person with their IdCAT will be able to have access to the different profiles for which they have been authorized. This will allow them to manage different accounts without having to close sessions each time or remember passwords that expire every so often. The person in charge justifies that the new formula responds to the European Union's requirements to protect health data by avoiding passwords and opting for a certified, accredited system such as IdCAT. "La Meva Salut will be a safer and more confidential space," she trusts, and explains that it is the same system that is already applied among "families who have minor or tutored children," through the Representa portal, which validates authorizations to third parties. In the health application there will be a section for Representa—guaranteeing its security against leaks—with which "as if it were Netflix, you will be able to choose the already authorized profile," indicates Serra, who points out that the permission will be "revocable."

Until the end of the year, the Department of Health will campaign for more Catalans to sign up for IdCAT Mòbil and, in addition, staff at primary care centers and citizen service offices will be trained so they can educate people about the new method. Before Health came out to deny its own information, this newspaper had already collected various complaints from users regarding the lack of "empathy" shown by health officials towards families. "What do they want, for us to have three phones just for health?", complained Josep Ros, who pointed to an "error" that would only make the "digital divide" wider between those who have access to a smartphone and those who do not. Núria Fernández also takes care of her 95-year-old father's schedule and asked to stop "complicating things" and to commit to a model like the one used by banking institutions, which allow one client to authorize another to carry out procedures. "If you can do it with money, why can't you with a visit to the CAP?", she asked. That is how it has finally been.