Federal health minister Mark Butler has flagged a substantial increase in funding for the still-evolving My Health Record, previously known as the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record, but has pulled up well short of again returning the system to an ‘opt-in’ basis like the Rudd and Gillard governments.
Released as part of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce report prior to the resumption of parliament this week, the funding commitment shores up the troubled 20-year-long project that is still struggling to achieve substantive take-up outside hospitals in primary health care and specialists.
“The taskforce found that Strengthening Medicare requires the modernisation of digital systems and significant improvements in the way patients’ information is accessed and shared across the health system,” Mark Butler said in a statement.
“An overhaul of My Health Record and improvements to better connect clinical IT systems across the health system is recommended to enable safe, quality healthcare, better medicine management for patients and to empower people to be more involved in their own health care.”
While there was never any real prospect that My Health Record would be axed in the coming Budget, forward funding nonetheless ran out at the end of this cycle on June 30.
My Health Record is distinct from other clinical and medical records, or what hospitals use to track treatments, admissions and discharges; it is, however, meant to act as a centralisation point for both patients and health services to access health information.
Clinicians, who tend to invest heavily in software specifically developed for their needs rather than the federal government’s, are not always fans of My Health Record because of its sometimes cumbersome connections to their own clinical, patient administration and practice management systems.
While the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has been a long-term supporter of eHealth overall, the peak group has not resiled from criticising problematic system builds or other usability issues.
Similarly, doctors have also been wary of federally imposed digital solutions and standards as a panacea for cash and other financial treatments.
AMA head Steve Robson questioned what the point of the pre-budget report was.
“We knew that the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce was going to be released soon, but as we went into the meeting, we were hearing talk from all of the premiers, chief ministers, and the Health Minister that health is the highest priority for the Government at the moment and Australians can see the crisis the health system is in,” Robson said.
“We were surprised to see nothing more come out of it. We had the most powerful political leaders in the country, all in one room. Doesn’t seem they could agree on anything.”
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