AMA submission on Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record System: Legislation Issues Paper

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.

Fundamentally, the purpose of the legislation for the PCEHR should be to ensure that only people who have a genuine need and are authorised to do so are entitled to access a person’s PCEHR. The legislation should also set out the framework under which the PCEHR system operator will function and the requirements on the repository operators.

The AMA's response to the Legislation Issues Paper stresses that the regulatory burden of the PCEHR on medical practitioners should be kept to an absolute minimum. Where medical records are covered by existing legislation, there should not be any need for additional legislation to deal with the PCEHR.