Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto
The federal government has provided an update on the number of My Health Records still active, revealing in a response to Questions on Notice that Australians are still cancelling the online medical file.
Of those who had a record created automatically for them on 22 February 2019, 30,402 had subsequently cancelled their record as at 14 April 2019.
It was revealed during Senate Estimates in February that a little over 2.5 million Australians had opted out of the government’s online medical file.
A week prior, the Department of Health disclosed that by mid-November, almost 300,000 Australians had removed themselves from the My Health Record system and cancelled their existing electronic medical record.
See also: Electronic health records: A cheat sheet for professionals (TechRepublic)
Many people who wanted to opt out found that they could not, since a record was already created for them.
The ADHA in January said 6.45 million individuals had a My Health Record. At the time, the agency said that almost half a million of these accounts had been created on purpose by Australians, with the remainder automatically set up by the government during its trial periods.
Addressing the National Press Club last month, Australian Medical Association (AMA) federal president Dr Tony Barton said 90.7% of Australians had a My Health Record.
“So almost a year on from that debate we’ve seen the introduction, and the legislation has passed, and certainly 90.7% of Australians now do have a My Health record,” Barton said.
“But that’s only part of the conversation, because that record doesn’t mean anything if there’s nothing in it.”
Barton said the industry needed to look at how My Health Record was being used.
“At the moment, there’s just not the information being shared between all parts of the system in a meaningful manner to allow that utility,” he said.