12 February 2010 Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners welcomes the government’s latest step in implementing the e-health agenda, with the Minister for Health and Ageing, The Hon Nicola Roxon MP, presenting the Healthcare Identifiers Bill, 2010 to Parliament earlier this week. The proposed national Healthcare Identifiers Service aims to implement and maintain a national system for uniquely identifying health care providers and individuals and is planned to be available from July 2010. Medicare Australia will be the initial operator of the Healthcare Identifiers Service.
The vast majority of GPs are already using computers for a range of health services and the college recognises the importance of building a robust and future looking e-health system for Australia.
In order to create a safe, reliable and timely health care environment, it will be of utmost importance to quickly and adequately identify patients, while maintaining the flexibility to provide anonymous services to those who require them. If we get it right, the national Healthcare Identifiers Service is the cornerstone to making e-health work.
The correct implementation of individual and health care provider identifiers is important, as it will help lead to a safer and more efficient means of distributing medical records between health care providers such as general practitioners, hospitals, specialists and pharmacists. It also greatly reduces risk of avoidable error.
The passing of this legislation is paving the path for the future. Health care identifiers are an important building block to enable a national individual electronic health record system.
While the RACGP in principle supports the development and implementation of a national Healthcare Identifiers Service, there must be clarity regarding privacy safeguards, implementation issues and the application of health identifiers before progressing the system. To read the RACGP’s submission to the Department of Health and Ageing, ‘Exposure Draft Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010’ in detail, visit www.racgp.org.au/healthreform/35827.
M5 Project - RACGP men's health initiative helping men to help themselves
M5 encourages men and those who care about them to recognise the importance of men forming an ongoing relationship with a GP.
