A citizen health portal should be established to provide the public with access to and control over their health and social care information, according to a new report from the Health Information and Quality Authority,
The report on the collection, use and sharing of health information needs major change to improve information sharing, quality of care and transparency about how health information is used.
HIQA said this would require legislation, technical and operational needs, and oversight.
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Rachel Flynn, HIQA Director of Health Information, said health staff cannot easily access patient health information where and when they need it and this can lead to repeated tests and delays in care.
Ms Flynn told RTÉ's News at One that Ireland will find it "very challenging" to ensure that health information is available electronically across the healthcare system.
"We don’t have a national electronic system. We don’t have a national portal," Ms Flynn explained.
She added that the majority of systems in Ireland's health and social care are collected using paper-based systems, saying that there are some electronic systems, but that they are not inter-connected.
"This makes the delivery of care extremely complex and there are definitely efficiencies to be gained by having these national systems and this national infrastructure," Ms Flynn said, adding that Ireland is significantly behind some other European countries in this regard.
"If we compare ourselves to other European countries they would be much further along this journey," Ms Flynn added.
"Denmark started this work over 30 years ago, making their systems electronic and using a standard based approach."
Social Democrats health spokesperson Roisín Shortall said that Ireland was well behind other countries in implementing a unique individual health identifier.
She said the 2017 Sláintecare reforms report called for an online health portal for patients to access their medical records and other developments.
The HSE said it agrees that such a system is required and should be a central part of a modern health service.
It said it has initiated a project to deliver a system that allows the sharing of health information among healthcare providers and directly with the patient.
"As HIQA has pointed out, this will require legislation, and will take time to be procured, developed and implemented", the HSE added.
The European Parliament has set a target that 100% of EU citizens have access to their electronic records by 2030.
According to HIQA, 86% of people want to view their own medical records online.
Also, 94% of people said it was important for health information to be used to improve quality of care and 94% also want to be informed about possible future uses of their health information.
HIQA said that a national health information strategy is needed to improve data quality and security.
The HIQA report gives an example of the case of a patient called 'Mary'.
She has a number of health issues, which means she is under the care of many different specialists and is also on a lot of different medicines, which often causes her confusion.
If her consultant changes treatment for one of her conditions, it can impact on the treatment for some of her other conditions, which the report shows can be a real balancing act.
Mary was on holidays in the west of Ireland and ended up in hospital. They had no access to her records, so she had to try to remember her medical history, which is complex and her memory is not the best.
Hospital staff had to do a whole series of tests and scans and she was in hospital for days.
Mary said that if only the hospital had access to her health records, she may not have needed all the additional tests.
She said she would love to easily access her own records too, as it would help her to manage her own care a little better.
