Government spends $2BILLION of your money on controversial health records system – but half of the entries are still EMPTY after 10 years
- Government’s online health record system has almost 10 million empty listings
- The $2billion system was made opt-out in 2018 and Australians aren’t logging in
- The government, however, says GPs and pharmacies are making use of system
The government’s controversial My Health electronic medical records system remains half empty despite costing taxpayers $2billion since it was started 10 years ago.
The system was first announced in 2009 as a way for patients, doctors, and specialists to access information such as x-rays and prescription histories with ease.
After investing $1.97 billion in establishing the system and making it op-out in 2018, half of the 23 million records created are empty, reports The Guardian.
The system was first announced in 2009 as a way for patients, doctors, and specialists to access information such as x-rays and prescription histories with ease
The platform was launched in 2012 but was hardly used with just four million people signing up by 2016 and many of those accounts contained no information.
Two years later the government attempted to save the system by making it opt-out with the opt-out period extended until 2019 after a backlash over privacy concerns.
Currently more than 90 per cent of Australians have a record created for them but of those 22.65 million records only 12.9 have any information in them.
Royal Australian College of General Practioners president Dr Harry Nespolon said that the number of empty records was staggering.
‘This is always my argument about opting in, that if this was a service they actually wanted they would opt in.’
‘The question is, of these 10 million people [without data in their records], do all 10 million really need a My Health Record?’
The figures seem to back up this argument with the numbers showing the Australian public has little interest in the service.
About 2.5 million Australians opted-out of the system before the 2019 cut-off with more people making the effort to do this than the 2 million that have logged in.
Currently more than 90 per cent of Australians have a record created for them but of those 22.65 million records only 12.9 have any information in them
However, the government department responsible for the system says GPs are uploading two to three million documents a month.
Including pharmacies, 100 million documents went into the system between November and December, with the bulk of them being Medicare and pharmaceutical benefit reports.
The department reports that 69 per cent of pharmacies and 71 per cent of GPs are using the system.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Department of Health for comment.