First places in Australia to get E-Health
Nicola Roxon
posted Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Brisbane, the Hunter Valley and Melbourne’s eastern suburbs will be at the cutting edge of cyber health advances as the first areas in Australia to use electronic health records.
These three sites will lead Australia as the Gillard Labor Government takes the health system into the 21st Century by building an electronic health record system that improves patient care and the safety and efficiency of the health system.
“This is an important step forward in allowing online access to health records for each Australian that chooses to,” Minister for Health Nicola Roxon said.
“Patients will control what goes onto their record and who can access their information.
“Brisbane, Melbourne and Hunter Valley residents who agree to participate at one of these sites will be at the forefront of this exciting new initiative.”
“This builds on the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday that Medicare rebates will be provided for online consultations across a range of specialities for the first time,” Ms Roxon said.
Each of the e-health sites announced today – GPpartners (QLD), GP Access (NSW) and Melbourne East GP Network (Victoria) – was chosen because they already have strong e-health capability and support within their communities.
In addition to e-health records, these three sites will use health care identifiers for patients, providers and hospitals, and will be the first to electronically send discharge summaries and referrals using national specifications.
These sites will help lead the way in developing and informing future planning of the system, improving technology and identifying what works well and what could work better. The two year investment in the three sites will be up to $12.5 million in total.
The state governments of the three states will also join this partnership to drive e-health forward in these communities. The Queensland Government has committed $1.2 million of in-kind support to GP Partners. The NSW Government has also committed $1.2 million to support the initiative and will work with the National E-Health Transition Authority to integrate their Healthelink pilot program with the national rollout.
If re-elected, the Gillard Labor Government will call for expressions of interest to identify further lead implementation sites in the near future, and significant funding will be available to support this process.
The e-health system will also benefit from the roll out of the National Broadband Network.
In contrast, the Liberal Party will scrap $467 million of funding provided by the Government in the most recent budget for e-health.
Mr Abbott’s cut defies advice from IT and health experts who believe e-health is essential to providing better, safer, more efficient patient care.
The President of the AMA, Dr Andrew Pesce recently said “e-health is one major investment which isn't a cost, it's a cost saver if we invest it wisely.” (National Press Club 21 July 2010)
Mr Abbott’s determination to scrap e-health is yet another example of his poor judgement and determination to hold Australia back, cut services and again damage our health system.
A Gillard Labor Government will use e-health to further its work to deliver improved health services in Australia.
This commitment is already included in the 2010 Budget, through the E‑Health initiative.
Tags: broadband, e, ehealth, e-health, health, internet, NEHTA, Roxon