Australian Medical Association

MJA media release - Medical staff rarely consider family history when caring for acutely ill patients in hospital, according to research published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

Dr Andrew Langlands, from the Royal Perth Hospital, and co-authors conducted an audit of the medical records of 300 randomly selected patients who were admitted to the hospital’s short-stay medical unit between July and December 2007.

Their study showed that 73.7 per cent of patient records had no family history documented, and just 16 per cent contained a family history with specific details about the presence or absence of a medical condition in at least one relative.

AMA Submission to the Community Affairs Legislation Committee on the Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 and Healthcare Identifiers (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010

The AMA considers healthcare identifiers are an essential building block towards the implementation of electronic health records, and we are therefore a strong supporter of their introduction. Healthcare identifiers will facilitate the secure access to, and appropriate sharing of, electronic patient information by healthcare providers.

We support the passage of the Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 and the Healthcare Identifiers (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010.

Establishment of the Healthcare Identifier Service was agreed to by the Council of Australian Governments in 2006 as part of the national approach towards accelerating work on electronic health records to improve the safety of patients and improve efficiency for healthcare providers.

In July 2009, the Department of Health and Ageing released a discussion paper on legislative proposals to support the establishment and implementation of unique identifiers for healthcare purposes and the privacy of health information.

The AMA submission on the discussion paper is supported by the AMA Position Statement on Unique Healthcare Identifiers in 2008.

AMA Position Statement: Guidelines for Doctors on Providing Patient Access to Medical Records - 1997. Revised 2002

AMA Position Statement: Access to Medical Records by Doctors Who Are Not Treating the Patients Concerned - 2002

Thank you for providing the AMA with the opportunity of commenting upon ACHA Health's application for a Public Interest Determination to permit the collection by health service providers of family and social histories without breaching the consent requirements of the privacy legislation. We make two major submissions: 1. The AMA supports ACHA Health's submission and for the TPID to form the basis of an ongoing PID. 2. The AMA sees the need for the wording of the TPID to be broadened

Who owns my medical records the doctor or patient? Who owns my medical records the doctor or patient? The Privacy Act gives patients a general right of access to information held about them. It does not necessarily give a patient the right of ownership of that information. As a general rule the doctor who holds patient information owns and controls it. Doctors retain their legal rights in relation to copyright of their own work. Access to this information is a separate issue.

I'm retiring - what do I need to do to with my records? A patient wants to change doctors - what am I required to do?

AMA Position Statement: Transfer of Medical Records Between Treating Doctors - 1998. Revised 2002