Can you believe the Federal Government has shelled out $1.15 billion on its controversial My Health Record system, but only 4.4 million have signed on? That’s just 18 per cent for $1.15 billion.
And over $1.2 billion has been allocated to its budget up to the 2017/18 FY.
So who is actually using the system?
The facts behind the figures
According to a Department of Health spokesperson, the number of healthcare providers using the Record has increased to an average of over 4,000 a week in the last three months, up from 2,200 providers in the three months up to February 7, 2016.
But let’s take a look at the data.
Just 5,900 general practices are registered out of the 136,000 across Australia. Of our 2,900 nursing homes, only 166 are signed up.
The majority of documents uploaded to the system are from Medicare – almost 400 million – with over 50 per cent Medicare benefits reports. Just 1.3 million of the files are clinical documents from doctors and hospitals.
For consumers, the numbers are even lower. Only 120,000 people had uploaded their own documents including 75,000 health summaries. Just 12,000 had used it to upload an advanced care directive.
A shaky start
Since it was launched by Labor as the opt-in Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) in 2012, My Health Record has struggled to get off the ground.
Instead of throwing it out, the Turnbull Government announced it would spend another $485 million of the 2015-16 budget on the scheme.
They’ve promised the system will save $2.5 billion a year within a decade once it’s up and running – how much will it cost before we get there?
