Abu Dhabi: The smart ID cards issued by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to their respective citizens will in the near future carry the entire medical histories of the individuals and enable medical service providers to arrange better treatment for them in emergencies when travelling.
This was one of the major recommendations made at the seventh meeting of the GCC Smart Card Steering Committee, a top official who chaired the meeting told Gulf News yesterday. The meeting ended in the capital on Monday.
The meeting heard that the card will enable hospitals to read a patient's medical history through an electronic reader within seconds, enabling doctors to provide him or her with the appropriate treatment immediately.
Official identification
The meeting also recommended framing regulations to make the smart ID card the official identification document in the GCC, so that GCC nationals would not need to produce passports for most official transactions.
Dr Ali Al Khoury, Director General of the Emirates Identity Authority (Emirates ID), said there was an understanding to use the smart ID as a multi-purpose identification card by integrating several other documents, such as driving licence and health card, with it.
"But it will take time due to technological limitations in the market to roll out the infrastructure to read the smart cards, especially in the big countries such as Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE," Al Khoury said.
The recommendations of the meeting will be considered by the ministers and top leadership of the GCC countries, he said, and added that the plan to include medical files in the card chip was expected to be implemented within three to five years.
Al Khoury said, however, that in the UAE, Emirates ID will not keep medical files in its database. Only basic information on medical files will be stored in the card chip. "It will contain information on permanent disability, protracted illnesses, etc," he said.
The meeting praised a UAE decision to unify the fee for the UAE national ID for all GCC nationals. The decision to impose the same fee for Emiratis and other GCC nationals will be implemented soon, after the final approval, Al Khoury said.
Framing regulations
Although GCC nationals can travel across the region using the smart ID card and without passports, private sector services such as hotels and car rental agencies still demand passports for identification, he said.
"That's why the meeting has recommended framing regulations to make the smart ID card as the official identification document," Al Khoury said. The regulations may allow exceptions for certain transactions like applications for bank loans, etc, he said.
At the moment border points of the GCC countries are checking the smart ID cards manually, except in Bahrain, Al Khoury said. The meeting has recommended developing a common API (Application Programming Interface) to read the cards electronically at the borders, which can detect forged cards. Emirates ID is working with the UAE Ministry of Interior, which controls the borders, to install the electronic readers.
