Healthcare Identifiers (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010
Tuesday, 25 May 2010 03:56
Darren Cheeseman Speech on Healthcare Identifiers (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak on this Bill, and I appreciate the comments other members have made on this important Bill.
Mr Speaker, this Bill is another example of why Australia's health care system - and Labor's Medicare system which is at the heart of our country's health system - has the best health care system in the world.
This Bill, and Labor's proposed health care reform program announced by the Prime Minister last week, shows a pathway towards maintaining our mantle as having the best health care system in the world into the future.
This Bill shows a core quality that is one of the primary reasons why we have the best health system in the world.
This quality is the quality of continual improvement.
Yes, we know we have the best health care system in the world, but we also know we have to continually assess our health care system and make changes that will meet the challenges of the future.
We have to be vigilant and to keep reviewing and improving our health care system.
This Bill, very much, is about building the best health care system for the future.
The Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 will establish a national Healthcare Identifiers Service (HI Service) and set out arrangements for its operation and its functions, which will be to assign, issue and maintain healthcare identifiers for individuals, healthcare providers and organisations.
The Bill will provide a national capability to accurately and uniquely identify individuals and healthcare providers to enable reliable healthcare-related communication between individuals, providers and provider organisations.
This approach to healthcare identifiers was agreed to by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in February 2006 as part of acceleration work on electronic health records to improve patient safety and increase efficiency for healthcare providers.
Mr Speaker, we know this issue is some risks, and the importance of confidentiality and security are paramount.
We know there is risk but also know we can manage risk.
But we also know that we have to take this step for the sake of providing better services, and for efficiency's sake.
And we know from similar types of projects in other institutions in our society that we can do it successfully.
Mr Speaker, I personally believe this is a very big step in developing a future health system that is more efficient, more flexible, more reliable, safer and more effective.
This legislation establishes the Healthcare Identifier Service and allocates functions to Medicare Australia as the initial service operator.
Medicare Australia's existing information and service infrastructure is to be used to establish individual and provider identifiers.
The key objective of the HI Service will be to provide a national capability to accurately and uniquely identify individuals and healthcare providers to enable reliable healthcare-related communication between individuals, providers and provider organisations.
The Identifiers are a fundamental building block for a national E-health system.
And E-health has the potential to improve patient safety and health outcomes.
Mr Speaker, we should consider these facts as a key drivers.
It is estimated that 30 to 50 per cent of patients with chronic diseases are hospitalised because of inadequate care management.
Up to 18 per cent of medical errors are attributed to inadequate availability of patient information, and between 9 and 17 per cent of pathology and diagnostic tests are unnecessary duplicates.
Think of the waste when these statistics are translated to dollars and translated nationally.
If we could just halve these error rates - and E Health holds out real promise in this regard - we would save our country billions, and over a decade tens of billions.
Think of the many ways this money could be better spent on people who need treatments, or ways it could be better spent on preventative health.
E Health has the capability of radically reducing this area of waste, and therefore making our precious health dollars work harder and better for us.
Mr Speaker, in my own region of Corangamite, I have recently released a local 4 point plan to improve the health of the region.
It is about creating better health solutions in my region.
The last Federal Health Minister in the Howard Government, Tony Abbott, did tremendous damage by ripping more than a billion out of the nation's health care budget, capping university places for GP training, creating many of the problem's we have in our region today.
Key parts of my plan are:
• Strongly supporting the Rudd Government's health reforms which will establish Local Hospital Networks, run by health and financial professionals, to be responsible for running their local hospitals rather than central bureaucracies;
• Working with local councils and sports clubs to apply to be one of the Australian Government's Healthy Communities Comprehensive 5-year Intervention Trials, where sports clubs and officials would be funded to significantly raise the level of participation of young people in sport in the Colac Otways Region,
• Working with Deakin University Medical School and Nursing Training Department to continue the roll of GP and nurse training facilities across the Colac Otway and western Victoria region.
Better E Health, better data, is crucial in making and developing the case in each of these areas, and implementing health solutions.
Mr Speaker, accurate, up-to-date information that you can work with and interpret is vital to most industries in the world today. It is absolutely essential in health.
The Colac Otway region, which is a very important part of my electorate, has high health needs in different parts of the district, and has a special case for improved health services.
I think better E Health services would help people in the Colac Otway Region.
Mr Speaker, the Federal Government is attempting to undertake a massive shift in our health spending based around preventative health.
The stated National Priorities in our Preventative Health Strategy are about intervening early, working with individuals and families in their local communities where people live, work and play.
Good E Health services are central to that whole policy shift.
One of the local proposals I have put forward in the area of preventative health is our region becoming one of the National 5 Year Preventative Health Trials.
I want to see our local shire councils combine with sports clubs and other health stakeholders to see if we can very significantly lift the rate of participation in active sports and healthy lifestyles.
The most important organisations in our shire and region as far as keeping young people active are the sports clubs.
Good E Health capabilities would help with designing systems to analyse the impacts and effects of such initiatives.
Mr Speaker, the Federal government's Preventative Health Strategy has a vision for Australia to be the healthiest country by 2020.
The strategy provides the roadmap for a series of strategic and practical actions, to be implemented across all sectors and by all Australians between now and 2020.
The preventative health strategy is being driven by projected future cost pressures on the healthcare system, expected as a consequence of changes to demographic ageing in Australia.
In light of this projection, in 2006, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) established the Australian Better Health Initiative (ABHI), with the aim of refocusing the health system towards promoting good health and reducing the burden of chronic disease.
Good E Health systems goes hand in hand with such initiatives.
This Bill is about taking a national approach to ensure the frameworks and key infrastructure components are coordinated and aligned across Australia.
The Commonwealth portion of funding for the costs of operating the HI Service, which totals $52 million over the period 2011-12, was agreed through the Strategic Priorities and Business Committee (SPBC) on 26 November 2008 as part of the total amount of $218 million provided to NEHTA for the e-health work program.
The Commmonwealth share is $26.01 million (50 per cent).
I believe spending this money is one of the best things we can do if we want to invest in a modern health system for the future.
Mr Speaker, I should note that the Identifiers will not hold any clinical information.
They are not electronic health records - but they are a key step in building the infrastructure for an electronic health record.
They are the building blocks for a thoroughly modern future health system.
IHI's will be allocated to all individuals who receive healthcare in Australia, but consumers will not be refused healthcare if their identifier is not available for some reason.
An IHI will be generated as a temporary number in situations where an individual cannot be identified at the point of care (e.g. emergency situations) or is not entitled to Medicare benefits, such as tourists.
Mr Speaker, this Bill has very lengthy origins and was developed as part of agreed COAG processes.
I will not go through all of the steps, but most recently, on 7 December 2009, COAG considered a report on the outcomes of public consideration on healthcare identifiers and privacy and signed a National Partnership Agreement setting out cooperative jurisdictional arrangements for e-Health, including for the Healthcare Identifiers Service.
The Government has committed to work and consult closely with Government agencies, state and territory governments and clinical, community and consumer stakeholders in the roll out of the HI Service.
The Minister for Health and Ageing is required to have a report prepared on the operation of the HI service and the legislation, which must be tabled in both Houses of Parliament.
So the Bill has the checks and balances that ought to be required in a Bill of this nature.
It is a Bill that is on the cutting edge of a modern health system today.
It is a Bill that will be good for Australia, that will save Australia billions into the future, that will provide better health outcomes.
And I commend it to the House.
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