Additional Comments - Australian Greens

1.1The Australian Greens thank the organisations and individuals who made submissions to the Community Affairs Committee during this inquiry. We also thank the secretariat for their hard work during this inquiry.

Overview

1.2The Australian Greens are in support of effective care pathways to promote greater cooperation and coordination between health services and systems.

1.3We note that the majority of submissions to this inquiry express support for expanding information sharing to My Health Record, and believe it will bring about better patient outcomes through greater availability of data.

1.4The Greens are in support of the stated outcomes of the Bill, which are to provide healthcare recipients greater access to their healthcare information and to bring about greater coordination between healthcare professionals through increased data-sharing.

Consumer privacy

1.5The Australian Greens believe that individuals must be able to control what happens to their personal information. In the context of My Health Record, this means that individuals must have the right and ability to opt out of information sharing and to remove existing data on their record. Furthermore, health information and data linked to identifiable individuals should be stored with the best up-to-date security systems and protocols.

1.6We are satisfied that this Bill upholds the above principles by allowing individuals to opt out of their information being shared to My Health Record. However, we do encourage the Government to provide educational material for consumers so they are aware of their privacy rights with My Health Record.

Practitioner compliance

1.7The compliance burden that may result from this legislation was raised as an issue by some submitting organisations. This includes the upfront cost associated with systems upgrades and upskilling of staff, as well as the ongoing administrative burden associated with uploading information and keeping records of exemptions.

1.8The Australian Greens acknowledge that an extension will be available for providers who require extra time to transition. We encourage the Government to also consider whether support for the transition process and/or financial compensation for the ongoing administration would be appropriate, especially for smaller providers. Provider education must be a critical part of the transition process, to ensure that providers are aware of their compliance obligations.

Looking forward

1.9The first stage of this legislation will apply to pathologists and diagnostic imaging providers, and then subsequent Rules will declare other healthcare professions for which mandatory sharing will apply.

1.10The Australian Greens encourage the Government to co-design the rest of the implementation process with healthcare consumers and providers.