Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge and congratulate the member for Wentworth on her election and also thank her for joining many members of the House this morning at the World AIDS Day breakfast, where a new medicine, Juluca, for over 860 patients with HIV was announced, and new self-testing equipment, for the first time, was there. With the member for Wentworth's history, I particularly acknowledge that.

Legislation in relation to My Health Record was passed unanimously through this House on Monday this week. I am very happy to inform that that included a guarantee that My Health Record would be in public ownership forever. There is no scope for revenue; there will be no revenue raised. I have confirmed again today with the deputy secretary in charge of financial matters within the Department of Health that no revenue has been projected from My Health Record. I'm happy to provide a guarantee that there is no capacity, there is no projection and there is no revenue anticipated. I'm also happy to provide the very documents which she is seeking.

The way it's framed by the Australian Digital Health Agency are the My Health Record expansion programs benefits measurement, the benefits measurement approach and also the corporate plan. Those documents address the very issues which she raises, more broadly. I would note that the benefits are about helping the 230,000 people in Australia who have some form of medication misadventure or medication clash avoid those clashes and to ensure patients have direct access to their own records. As her successor at the AMA, the current President of the AMA, Tony Bartone, wrote only very recently, 'The electronic record can save lives'. And as the Consumer Health Forum said only yesterday:

We believe that the amended measures protecting MHR users will assure the benefits of a national health records system will reach many more people more quickly, particularly those with chronic and complex conditions who rely on an accurate record of their medication, diagnostic tests and treatment.

I think that's a perfect summary of the benefits of the record.

See this speech in context