Opposition votes for ehealth, slams PCEHR

The federal opposition has weighed into debate about the sector’s transformation, branding the $467 million Personally Controlled Electronic Healthcare Record (PCEHR) another example of the federal government’s “poorly implemented approach to blockbuster projects.”

Andrew Southcott, federal opposition spokesman on ehealth, told eHealthspace.org that while he supports the broader ehealth agenda, the PCEHR program was similar to other controversial Labor Government programs including the Building the Education Revolution and home insulation debacle.

Ehealth falls under Mr Southcott’s purview as shadow parliamentary secretary for primary healthcare. “Ehealth is an area where lots of money can be wasted, and we are starting to see some of the problems,” he said.

He argued that ehealth is a positive step for improving health outcomes, but said had the coalition won government in 2007, it would have done things differently.

“We identified the $467 million project as something we would not have proceeded with,” he said. “We would instead have aimed at getting key functions, such as e-prescriptions and pathology results, up and running. They would have been quick wins.”

Mr Southcott was also at pains to point out the opposition supported the passage of the Individual Health Identifiers (IHI) bill. And he said the opposition would support passage of the PCEHR legislation, reserving the right to create amendments depending on the outcome of the recent Senate Committee hearing.

The opposition is deeply concerned that, come the July 1 deadline, after which every Australian who wants a PCEHR will be able to register for one, there won’t be much to show for the half billion investment.

“I have a lot of concerns we won’t have much to actually see on July 1,” Mr Southcott said. “The money runs out on June 30. No one knows what’s going to come after that.”

Mr Southcott is a qualified medical practitioner, and has held his seat in Boothby, SA, since March 1996. As a clinician, he’s sympathetic to the calls made by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) for rebates to compensate members for the work involved in creating, uploading and maintaining the PCEHR. “We don’t, however, have an opposition position on this issue,” he added.

As a relatively long-standing member of parliament, eHealthspace.org asked Mr Southcott whether ehealth is something that ever comes up when he’s communicating with his constituents. He replied in the negative.