Australian Medical Association

The AMA submission on the exposure draft of the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records Bill 2011 highlights that the safety objects of the legislation will be undermined by the opt-in design of the system and the ability of patients to to effectively remove clinical documents from their PCEHR. The submission also makes several suggestions to improve the transparency of the governance arrangements for the PCEHR and to clarify the operation of the civil penalty provisions.

AMA President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said today that the AMA was disappointed that the Government has failed to heed medical advice in finalising its Concept of Operations for the personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR).

Dr Hambleton said the proposals could ‘de-medicalise’ electronic patient health information.

“Little has changed from the draft plan despite the sound advice provided by many medical groups, including the AMA, about what should be included on a patient’s health record.

“The Government has caved in to minority consumer groups.

The AMA submission to the Department of Health and Ageing on the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record System: Legislation Issues Paper should be read in conjunction with the concerns expressed in our submission on the PCEHR Draft Concept of Operations.

AMA Vice President, Professor Geoffrey Dobb, said today that the Government’s new telehealth arrangements have the potential to improve access to quality medical services for people in rural, remote, and outer metropolitan areas over time.

Prof Dobb said that the Government has recognised that video consultations will have both time and financial impacts on many medical practices, but the AMA believes the compensation and funding arrangements need to be adjusted to ensure maximum participation by practices and maximum benefits for patients.

“We welcome the Government’s decision to fund video consultations for referred specialist consultations,” Prof Dobb said.

The AMA submission on the proposed PCEHR expresses concerns that the proposed form of the PCEHR will provide only limited safety benefits and these are significantly outweighed by its inherent clinical and medico-legal risks for medical practitioners and the administrative burden it will impose on medical practices.

The AMA submission highlights that the Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare 2010 already govern the management of health care practitioners who have blood-borne viruses and makes the point that there is no need to de-register a medical practitioner because they have a blood-borne virus.  The AMA has asked the Board to clarify its role in regulating the scope of practice of medical practitioners who are infected with a blood-borne virus in isolation from the way this issue is managed by medical practitioners and the health care organisations in which they practice.  The AMA has suggested the Board undertake a second round of consultation once it has clarified what action would constitute a breach of guidelines and that action the Board might take in such cases.

The AMA welcomes the opportunity to raise concerns and provide input to the way that the proposed personally controlled electronic health record (PCEHR) will operate.

AMA Vice President, Dr Steve Hambleton, said today that the draft e-health records blueprint, Concept of Operations, will require careful consideration, particularly in respect to the medical information that will be stored on the PCEHR, and who will have access to it.

MJA release: The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) can improve health service delivery for patients and clinicians as well as increase the efficiency of health services, according to a supplement in the latest Medical Journal of Australia.

The AMA submission on Medicare funding for online consultations calls for funding not to be limited to video consultations only, but include telephone calls, emails and other non-video online consultations that are necessary for providing care to patients who are remote to the specialist caring for them.  The submission also says that the MBS items should be drafted broadly to enable treating doctors to use their clinical judgment to determine when an online consultation is clinically relevant for their patient and the clinically appropriate technology to use to provide the service.

AMA President, Dr Andrew Pesce, said today that the Government should concentrate its efforts on delivering the most easily achievable aspects of an electronic medical record in order to get Australia’s much-anticipated ‘e-health revolution’ started.

Dr Pesce said that the AMA has long been a supporter of the Government’s e-health agenda but it is time that people started seeing some results.