Announcement Alert – Privacy Consultation on the IHI.

The following appeared today.

No quick cure for health as hospital takeovers go to the back of the queue

  • Mark Metherell
  • July 13, 2009

Kevin Rudd is expected to stall, if not ditch, his threat of a federal takeover of public hospitals, raising the question of just how serious he might be about health reform.

Having installed the most exhaustive series of reviews of the health system since at least the Whitlam era, the Prime Minister's credibility on health is about to go under the X-ray.

The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission and two taskforces on primary health care and preventive health have filed their reports to the Government, which is expected to release them within days.

......

The federal and state governments are already moving on the sensitive issue of electronic health records which have the potential to transform health services, with the announcement today of a national consultation on legislation for individual patient ID numbers which will underpin the system. This may help shore up Rudd's credibility on health reform, given the likely retreat on the hospital takeover ambit.

.....

Full article here:

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/no-quick-cure-for-health-as-hospital-takeovers-go-to-the-back-of-the-queue-20090712-dhc2.html

It will be interesting to see what is asked.

More material is here:

Ministers to refine details of e-health safeguards

Mark Metherell

July 13, 2009

AUSTRALIA'S health ministers are moving to quell Big Brother fears about the planned patient identity numbers to be assigned to every Australian by mid-next year.

The ministers today will announce national consultations with health experts and privacy groups to formulate legal safeguards for the electronic health system, which is expected to transform health-care efficiency and safety.

Full article here:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/ministers-to-refine-details-of-ehealth-safeguards-20090712-dhe1.html

It is of note that patients are to have their identifiers within a year. I suspect getting provider identifiers in place may a little longer but we shall see. I wonder how many computer systems will be ready to use these identifiers in the next year?

David.

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