THE HON CATHERINE KING MP
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND MEDICARE
MEMBER FOR BALLARAT
Greg Hunt must immediately explain what he’s doing to address the problems plaguing his e-health rollout, which are preventing people from opting out of the My Health Record.
The first 24 hours of the opt-out period have been a disaster – confirming Labor’s fears that Malcolm Turnbull and Greg Hunt are simply incapable of getting a rollout of this size and ambition right.
Labor supports e-health.
Implemented by a competent Government, the My Health Record could deliver major health care improvements and save the health system up to $7 billion a year through fewer diagnosis, treatment and prescriptions errors.
But this Government is far from competent. They have a woeful record on IT security, privacy and basic digital functionality.
They gave us census fail, the robodebt debacle, and then allowed Australians’ Medicare data to be sold on the dark web. And now they have stuffed up the launch of the My Health Record opt-out period.
The Government has had years to prepare for this launch but somehow managed to dramatically underestimate demand for the opt-out process.
People experienced long delays and repeated technical faults as they tried to opt out on Monday. More troubling, some people who wanted to opt out logged in to find a My Health Record had already been created for them without their knowledge or consent.
Many Australians will now be asking themselves: Can I really trust this Government with my most sensitive health information?
Greg Hunt must explain how he’s going to fix this mess – and how he’s going to restore trust in this important reform.
TUESDAY, 17 JULY 2018