EHEALTH MORE TURNBULL INCOMPETENCE

Distressing reports of the Turnbull Government asking dead people whether they want to opt out of having an electronic health record highlight the chaos and dysfunction that typifies the Turnbull Government’s record in health.
 
This latest debacle comes in spite of the Government taking more than two years to act on the recommendations of its own expert review of Electronic Health Records.
 
This is typical of the incompetence that characterises this government’s health policy which has seen delay and dysfunction across every area of the health portfolio.
 
It proves, yet again, this government has no commitment to health and is simply incapable of making any meaningful reforms to the health system.
 
The tragedy is, backed by a competent Government, e-health holds out the prospects of improving health care delivery in Australia, while making the system sustainable and better for patients.
 
The Government’s own expert review found it could save the health system $7 billion a year through fewer diagnoses, treatment and prescription errors, and in the process avoid thousands of unnecessary hospital admissions.
 
Labor knows a properly integrated ehealth record is vital to realise efficiencies in the system – which is why we delivered on the reform in government.
 
But sadly, today’s evidence shows the competence required to deliver such a vital health reform is beyond the talents of the Turnbull Government.