Health Legislation Amendment (Modernising My Health Record — Sharing by Default) Bill 2024

The majority voted against an amendment introduced by Victorian Senator Lidia Thorpe (Greens), which means it failed. It would have added the text below to the usual second reading motion, which is "that the bill be read a second time" (which is parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill).

Amendment text

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that:

(i) significant barriers exist in accessing and transferring medical records for people in prisons, including minimal use of My Health Record, which disrupts continuity of care,

(ii) the National Review of First Nations Health Care in Prisons (the Review) identified urgent reforms needed to address substandard healthcare in prisons, including improving access to medical records upon entry, transfer and release,

(iii) recommendation 157 from the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (the Royal Commission) states that:

… efforts must be made by the Prison Medical Service to obtain a comprehensive medical history for the prisoner including medical records from a previous occasion of imprisonment, and where necessary, prior treatment records from hospitals and health services. In order to facilitate this process, procedures should be established to ensure that a prisoner's medical history files accompany the prisoner on transfer to other institutions and upon re-admission and that negotiations are undertaken between prison me dical, hospital and health services to establish guidelines for the transfer of such information,

(iv) systemic issues, such as incompatible information systems, force individuals and their advocates to submit freedom of information requests to access their own medical records, further delaying appropriate care,

(v) Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations are already understaffed and subjected to high administrative burdens, which will be further strained by these reforms to My Health Record,

(vi) there remains significant privacy concerns amongst the public about their digital rights relating to My Health Record; and

(b) calls on the Government to:

(i) work with States and Territories to:

(A) resolve the issues highlighted in the Review regarding medical record access and transfer in prisons, and

(B) urgently implement the Review's recommendations to improve continuity of care for people in prisons, many of which reflect recommendations from the Royal Commission still yet to be implemented; and

(ii) ensure privacy protections and cybersecurity practices adequately protect health data and prevent the unauthorised sharing of health data with third parties,

(iii) provide additional support, including financial compensation where appropriate, to smaller healthcare providers, particularly Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, for the additional staffing requirements and administrative burden associated with uploading data and complying with these reforms; and

(iv) allocate resources to ensure that consumers are aware of the changes and the much more active role they will have to play in ensuring that the information they don't want on My Health Record is not uploaded".