Confusion as some Australians discover My Health Record profile already set up
Australians have until October 15, 2018 to opt out of the federal government’s My Health Record, an online summary of their healthcare information, but users logging in from Monday have been shocked to discover profiles already set up for them.
The national digital database aims to give Australians greater access to documents about their health and increase communication between doctors – but people who have tried to opt out due to privacy concerns have found they already have a record set up online.
The ABC report that people accessing My Health Record for the first time have found several to hundreds of documents already uploaded.
According to the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), almost 6 million Australians currently hold a My Health Record.
An ADHA spokesperson said: "Some people may have forgotten that they have one and not known that the name of the record has since changed.”
Once called the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR), old records could be pulling in the data for My Health Record profiles.
The scheme has been in the works for a long time and medical professionals have praised the potential benefits to patient care it will provide.
Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Dr Tony Bartone says the new system was necessary to move from a “prehistoric” way of information sharing in the medical industry.
“It will bring data presently located in many different parts of the health system … and attempt to bring it into an online repository in the one place,” he told news.com.au. “Your health data is already in various portals. What isn’t there yet is this online, connected repository … that will facilitate a communication revolution.”
But advocacy groups such as Digital Rights Watch have expressed concerns about the security of My Health Record, and are urging everyone to opt out.
“No guarantees have being given that individual citizen’s personal information will be kept safe and secure,” Digital Rights Watch chairman Tim Singleton Norton warned.
“Health information is incredibly attractive to scammers and criminal groups.
“There are also concerns of the current or future access being granted to private companies.”
Adding to the frustration, many users are experiencing long waits and technical difficulties as they try to get out of the My Health Record system.
People were unable to complete the process online and others using the telephone hotline faced long waiting times and even when some got through, call centre workers were unable to help because of systems crashing or slowing.
A spokesman for the Australian Digital Health Agency said the site had not crashed, but acknowledged a “minor connection issue” with the call centre on Monday, as well as “some human error issues”.
“The My Health Record consumer opt out portal is operating normally and has continued to do so throughout the opt out process,” the spokesman said in a statement to news.com.au
“There have been some human error issues, with consumers not having the right information to correctly opt out which has slowed down the process for some people.
“There was a minor internal connection issue yesterday in an Agency call centre which was compounded by the high level of callers on the first day who did not have the correct information to opt out. This issue was resolved quickly and the call centre resumed normal operations on Monday afternoon.”