Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

The government is determined to include e-health solutions in national health and hospital reforms and we expect the opposition to come on board. The government is determined to introduce electronic health records to save time and money in healthcare systems and reduce medical errors. Right now, 190,000 admissions each year are caused by medical errors. By introducing electronic health records to our health and hospital system, those errors can be reduced.

The Liberals must think that medical errors are acceptable. They opposed our e-health reform at the recent election and now continue this base political opposition to good reform. Having nationally accessible personal healthcare records that work to assist the patients, physicians and wider system simply makes sense. I am not surprised, though, that the Liberals oppose e-health. Their party is led by a former health minister. (Time expired)