The Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records Bill 2011 has been passed by both Houses of Parliament is awaiting Royal Assent.
UPDATE 3 July: The Act received Royal Assent on 26 June.
The Bill will establish the national personally controlled electronic health record system and provide its regulatory framework. The PCEHR Bill will also implement a privacy regime specific to the PCEHR system which will generally operate concurrently with Commonwealth, state and territory privacy laws.
The Bill sets out who will be able to enter information and who can read it or change it.
The Bill outlines the process by which consumers, health care organisations and data repositories will register to be part of the eHealth system which will provide access to electronic health records.
Patients will not only be able to access their own eHealth record but will also be able to view who has accessed their record.
Patients can upgrade their privacy settings to suit their needs. Doctors, or other health professionals, will be the only people allowed to create medical notes on the file. Patients can add their own notes about their general health but cannot make medical notes.
It will be an opt-in system. The Rules setting out how the system will work in practice have not yet been released.
