Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Modern health care is being transformed by new research, truly integrated approaches and new technologies. The Sunshine Coast is at the forefront of these developments. Our emerging healthcare hub is a perfect example of how this blend of technology and medicine is the future. The Thompson Institute, part funded by $5 million from this coalition government—our government—brings together psychiatry and counselling with cutting edge MRI technology to understand the physical mechanisms that lie behind mental illness. The research programs being funded by our government at the Thompson Institute will use detailed scans to understand a longitudinal study of the physical changes in the brain which are driving serious mental illness among young people and people with dementia in my community. I'm optimistic that, working closely with the Health Minister, I'll be able to secure funding in the future to expand this work to look at the physical changes which underlie post-traumatic stress disorder for our some 15,000 veterans on the Sunshine Coast, and our emergency service workers and those who did work in emergency service work.

Away from the Thompson Institute, we're seeing integrated healthcare approaches in the federally funded eating disorder pilot now under way in my electorate. With $3.2 million in federal support, the local Sunshine Coast primary health network is working closely with the Butterfly Foundation to create a new integrated and in-depth approach to treating these insidious conditions. In Mooloolah Valley, a beautiful part of my electorate, another organisation, endED, has teamed up with the Butterfly Foundation, with $1.5 million in federal government support—our government support—to provide an integrated solution for the treatment of eating disorders.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I know that you're going to find this difficult to believe, but there is not one residential facility in Australia that caters for and treats people suffering from eating disorders. But there will be one, very shortly, in my electorate of Fisher, thanks to our government's contribution. Our $1.5 million contribution of taxpayers' money will help those who are suffering from these terrible diseases. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank endED's founders, Mark and Gay Forbes, who are absolutely leading the way and leading the charge on the treatment of eating disorders in Australia. Along with this bill, when it becomes law, they're going to ensure that all of a patient's information is available to the practitioners that are working to aid that patient's recovery so the treatment can be consistent but flexible and responsive no matter which practitioner is available at the time.

Towering over all of these projects is the coast's new $1.8 billion Sunshine Coast University Hospital. A cutting-edge facility with all of the latest equipment, this hospital provides the central local nexus around which patients' treatment can cluster, giving them consistent care without the need to travel to Brisbane. In microcosm, what is going on with our emerging 21st century health hub on the Sunshine Coast is a clear example of the same benefits that will be derived nationally from the My Health Record.

My Health Record mixes digital technology with the work of everyday clinicians to create a more powerful understanding of a patient's condition. By creating a single hub of information from which different treating clinicians can draw, it ensures that treatment can be consistent but flexible and adaptive. It allows patients to go to exactly the right practitioners for them and have their information follow them, accessible at just a moment's notice. Like endED Butterfly House, My Health Record will help to provide a more supportive and less stressful process of treatment by preventing the need for patients to remember all of their treatment history and test results or to explain their condition to new doctors and new nurses again and again. Equally, by providing a central repository of information, it helps to prevent any pertinent facts being lost and helps to stop inappropriate treatments being inadvertently delivered.

It is perhaps no surprise, then, that health professionals in Australia are united on the value of the My Health Record in improving patient outcomes and avoiding preventable deaths. The president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Tony Bartone, said 'The electronic record can save lives.' He has described how the earlier version of the My Health Record saved the life of a Brisbane GP's patient. With access to the information that was in the patient's electronic record, the hospital's doctors were able to make the decision not to give the diabetic patient, who was in a coma, the usual antibiotic that would have been administered for sepsis. Had the hospital delivered that antibiotic, the patient would have had a severe reaction and most likely would have died. As Dr Bartone put it, 'That is a powerful example of the value of an electronic health record.'

This week, we have rightly been speaking a great deal about aged care. At this time, we should be doing all that we can to improve the provision of aged-care services in Australia and, in this, the My Health Record will also make a difference. As Leading Age Services Australia's CEO Sean Rooney said:

By enabling information sharing between the various parts of the Australian health system, including aged care, digital health has the potential to enable programs and initiatives that integrate care, wrapping it around the needs of patients …

Patient focused care is what we need in aged care and throughout the healthcare system. And that is what the My Health Record delivers. Victorian Healthcare Association CEO, Tom Symondson, has even gone so far as to implore Australians to remain in the system and has said that those who opt out will miss out on the chance for better treatment.

So the clinical value of a My Health Record is clear. But with so much personal information stored, it is understandable that individuals have had concerns about their privacy. In the original design of the system, the government took comprehensive steps to ensure that records would stay secure. All data on the system is stored in Australia, protected by high-grade security protocols. This data is not stored in a data centre overseas. The system has been regularly tested throughout by our nation's top cybersecurity experts, who constantly look for weaknesses that could be exploited. It is protected by encryption, secure gateways and firewalls, authentication mechanisms and malicious content filtering. The Australian Digital Health Agency's Cyber Security Centre constantly monitors for external threats and works closely with the Australian Cyber Security Centre, the Australian Signals Directorate and our government to deal with any suspicious activity.

At an individual level, the existing scheme gives Australians considerable control over who can see their personal information. Individuals can set their own access controls to say which practitioners can see which information and which documents. They can choose whether or not particular information goes into their My Health Record at all, and they can choose to receive notifications if a new practitioner accesses their information. So they will be put in control of their information. They can choose whether the information can be used for research or not and, in the final resort, they can choose to have their My Health Record deleted.

These precautions and more are why, for the past six years, with six million Australians already registered on and benefitting from the system, there has not been a single security breach. Let me just say that again: for the past six years, with six million Australians already registered on and benefitting from the system, there has not been a single security breach. Unfortunately, some in this place want to try and cause fear and havoc. Not a single breach.

However, we know how important it is that the public has confidence in this system, and we have listened to that feedback. In particular, some members of the public and privacy advocates have expressed reasonable concerns over the fact that law enforcement agencies and other government departments could potentially access a person's sensitive health records for purposes other than treatment without a proper judicial process. Others have expressed the concern that section 17 of the My Health Records Act requires the system operator to retain some personal information for 30 years after the death of an individual on My Health Record, even if that individual has requested that their record be deleted. This bill therefore makes two simple but critical amendments to the procedures surrounding the system to make explicit and unambiguous the duties that exist on the My Health Record system operator when it comes to handling personal information. The bill will remove the ability of the system operator, currently the Australian Digital Health Agency, to disclose health information to law enforcement agencies and other government bodies without a court order or the patient's express consent.

Although this has been the stated policy of the current system operated to date, it has remained an area of possible future dispute, and this bill lays that possibility to rest permanently. The bill will also require the system operator to delete health information it holds for any consumer who has ever cancelled their My Health Record. This will override the requirement to retain information for 30 years after an individual's death where they have requested that their record be removed.

The amendments can be briefly and simply described. However, these practical and concise changes have been widely welcomed by the community and endorsed by Australia's leading public advocates for privacy and human rights. Acting Information Commissioner and Acting Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk welcomed the proposals, which she stated would 'give the community greater control over their health information' and 'create certainty and enhance privacy safeguards for all Australians'. Australia's Human Rights Commissioner Edward Santow echoed these sentiments, saying that these changes 'will give greater certainty about how individuals' health information will be used in the My Health Record system'.

I'd encourage all my constituents in Fisher to find out more about My Health Record before the new extended opt-out deadline of 15 November this year. I encourage them to be fully informed, to understand the system and the privacy controls available to them. And I encourage them, when they are fully informed, to stay opted into the system, to enjoy the significant benefits that it will bring. If any of my constituents are unable to find the information that they need in order to make an informed choice, my office and I will be very happy to answer any questions that they may have. It's important that we grow and maintain public confidence in the My Health Record system. The system will avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, reduce overdoses and allergic reactions, better coordinate care and facilitate better treatment decisions. In the context of the 21st century medicine going on on the Sunshine Coast and all over Australia today, it is the right solution and will only become more necessary over time.

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