Fingerprint identification in Bulgarian hospitals will be introduced by September 25 at the latest.

The new type of identification will not be applicable to children under the age of fourteen. Children exempt from fingerprint identification will enter hospitals with their personal identity number and the fingerprint of the person accompanying them.

This was announced by representatives of the National health insurance fund (NZOK) at a seminar in Plovdiv.

According to NZOK, up to 3 % of people will not be able to scan their fingerprints for different reasons.

People working with abrasive materials, such as hairdressers, might face difficulties with the new system.

NZOK is considering an option to allow elderly people, who are not able to go out of their homes, to authorise someone else to do the identification for them.

This type of identification has been chosen due to the high reliability in establishing the physical presence of a person.

NZOK assures that no images of fingerprints will be stored in the system.

The system will be fitted in NZOK by July 25 and hospitals will have two months to introduce and start using it.

In the future, the system will be used for keeping an electronic health record of patients and for issuing electronic prescriptions.

In emergencies, patients will first receive treatment, with their identity to be established at a later stage, as is the current case.

Everyone will be able to download mobile application which notifies every time the fingerprint identification is being used or a payment to NZOK is made.

The introduction of fingerprint identification was one of the issues against which general practitioners (GPs) protested at the end of March.

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