MY HEALTH RECORD
1270. Hon ALISON XAMON to the parliamentary secretary
representing the Minister for Health:
I refer to the nationwide
implementation of the My Health Record.
(1) Are any
policies or procedures being developed at the state level to ensure that the
privacy of vulnerable people with mental health issues is protected in relation
to the My Health Record?
(2) If no to (1),
why not?
(3) If yes to
(1), are there specific provisions to prevent uploading of sensitive
information such as mental health medical records without informed consent?
(4) If no to (3),
why not?
Hon ALANNA
CLOHESY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The
Department of Health issued a statewide mandatory policy on the use of the My
Health Record system on 18 October 2018. The policy mandates the treatment of
health information contained within the My Health Record in the same way as
other clinical information in regard to privacy and confidentiality.
(2) Not
applicable.
(3) Under the
commonwealth My Health Record Act 2012, healthcare provider organisations are
authorised to upload information to the MHR system unless the individual has
chosen to opt out. Consumers can request that a particular document, including
test results, not be uploaded to the MHR, and healthcare providers must comply
with such requests. The WA health system has already implemented the technical
capability to enable the override of the upload of discharge summaries at the
request of patients; or as per the Western Australian Mental Health Act 2014,
if the clinician decides that provision of a discharge summary is not in the
best interest of the patient. Additional work is also underway to enable all
patients to have the option to withdraw consent to upload information relating
to a specific episode of care or all information pertaining to their care in
the public health system on an ongoing basis. Further to this, there is a list
of sensitive tests that will be automatically excluded from being uploaded to
the MHR from the public health system. This includes tests relating to HIV,
sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy testing in minors, and drug and
alcohol tests.
(4) Not applicable.