Wed 1st Aug 2018
My Health Record: Opt Out Remains an Invasion of Privacy and Erosion of Trust
Despite the news yesterday of welcome changes to the My Health Record (MHR) to remove legal access for non medical use of data by Government agencies, the real problems with MHR remain in place, said Dr Tim Woodruff, president, Doctors Reform Society
Forcing people to opt out or have a MHR made for them is not informed consent. It is a lazy approach by an incompetent Government who have resorted to forcing people to have an MHR because the Government has not been able to get people to join and have resorted to sneaky underhand ways of getting more into the scheme. It relies on ignorance of the scheme (I asked 5 patients yesterday what they thought of the MHR and none had heard of it), or of lack of understanding of the scheme.
In addition the Government will not have rules on secondary use of the data for research and planning purposes for several years so people are being asked to make a decision about joining MHR without knowing what the rules are for using the data that goes on the record.
Lastly, the concern regarding hacking of data remains and given how slow the Government has been to respond to concerns they have now addressed, confidence in its competence to avoid hacking remains low.
Despite the obvious potential benefits of the scheme, the benefits do not justify deceiving people. They are invading the privacy of their relationships with their doctors by having an opt out scheme rather than continuing with the opt in scheme used to date.
It’s time the Government opted out of its opt out decision and worked out how to use and maintain the trust of the people with an opt in scheme.
Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Ph 0401042619