My Health Record needs funding boost, GPs warn

The leading representative for Australian GPs has called for the Albanese government to further fund its long-troubled health record system, fearing a recent drive in reform could be stalled by ‘political whim’.

Royal Australian College of GPs president Nicole Higgins. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The leading representative for Australian GPs has called for the Albanese government to further fund its long-troubled health record system, fearing a recent drive in reform could be stalled by “political whim”.

The Royal Australian College of GPs has urged the federal government to improve the usability of the My Health Record system for both patients and clinicians after its upcoming Health of the Nation report found 31 per cent of GPs avoided using it.

My Health Record acts as a centralised database for patient records and prescriptions, but was found to be “plagued by incomplete records and poor usability” by the Productivity Commission in May. It showed less than 2 per cent of patient documents available on the platform were seen by GPs.

Under the Albanese government, My Health Record has seen serious reform, particularly in populating records automatically for the 91 per cent of Australians who have profiles on the platform.

From 2019 to 2024, the number of profiles populated with health data has risen from 5.4 million to 23.9 million. The government intends to pass legislation by the end of the year obligating clinicians to enter all pathology tests and imaging results onto the platform to better prevent needless re-testing.

However, RACGP president Nicole Higgins argues the platform is still not fit for purpose.

“It’s a big job to improve our flagship national health data system, and we recognise that the Australian government and the Australian Digital Health Agency are taking steps to this end. However, this work must continue to be prioritised because it will have significant benefits for Australians and our health system,” Dr Higgins said.

“We need to have good population data to drive decisions versus political whim. Poor systems costs the taxpayer money. Without integration there’s duplication, there’s double handling, there is repeat ordering of tests and investigations that are ­unnecessary.”

The Productivity Commission estimated an optimised medical records system could save the taxpayer up to $5.4bn each year in reduced time at hospitals, and $355m in duplicated tests.

The RACGP has advocated for automation of patient data uploads, improved searchability, implementing notifications when patient records change, and incentives for industries with low My Health Record uptake to join the system and promote more complete data.

Introduced under the Gillard government in 2012, the system has long been criticised for placing the burden on health professionals who are expected to teach themselves the system.

Bacchus Marsh doctor Rob Hosking. Picture: Kris Reichl

Bacchus Marsh GP Rob Hosking, a specialist in medical informatics, said the current system relied on GPs taking time out of their schedules, when many were facing ballooning waitlists.

“The linkage to the GP systems is still pretty poor after 12 years,” Dr Hosking said.

“My Health Record is now old technology. It still uses the old PDF format that Labor installed when we were last in government,” Health Minister Mark Butler said. “It was cutting edge then, but it’s clunky now.”

“That’s why the Albanese Government is upgrading My Health Record to transform it from a ‘PDF document system’ to a data rich platform to provide rich insights to consumers and health professionals.”