While every Australian will soon be assigned a 16-digit health ID number, politicians and other "well-known personalities" will be able to take advantage of false identities to stop their records falling into the wrong hands.
The 16-digit health number is a "building block" towards national electronic health records, which will be eventually shared among health professionals.
The federal agency responsible for the rollout yesterday conceded the safeguards would be built into the system to "mitigate against the potential risks of exposure to this information". But access to the extra level of protection offered by the false IDs, known by the federally funded National E-Health Transaction Authority as "pseudonymisation", will not be widespread.
"Pseudonymisation is not intended to be a generally available option," a spokeswoman for NEHTA said.
She said there was a "need to provide special protection for vulnerable people such as "well-known personalities" and victims of domestic violence.
"With the universal allocation of individual healthcare identifiers to all Australian residents, there is a need to provide some form of special protection for vulnerable individuals to mitigate against the potential risks of exposure of this information," the spokeswoman said.
The numbers, called "individual healthcare identifiers", or IHIs, will store only names and dates of birth and will not contain clinical information.
The numbers will "tag" medical results such as blood tests and X-rays.
The process is designed to ensure the right results are about the right patient.
Someone with one of the false IDs would be given a token which they could use the same way as they would their own identifying number.
Although every Australian will be issued with an IHI number, they can choose not to use it. But people who did want an IHI number with an alternative identity would have to make a special application.
Despite the concession that an extra level of protection would be given to some, the NEHTA says the system is secure. NEHTA clinical head Mukesh Haikerwal said the system would include an audit trail, which would mean any individual would know where someone had accessed their records.
Dr Haikerwal, a former president of the Australian Medical Association, said: "You will never satisfy everyone in regards to privacy, but I have far more confidence in the future of e-health and the security of its records than I do in the current system.
"If confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship is in any way compromised, I would have no part in it."
Currently, Australians can access anonymous medical care by simply not using their Medicare card.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon did not comment yesterday but has previously said e-health would have strict, legislative protocols to protect patients' medical histories.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Renee Viellaris
Quelle/Source: Courier Mail, 20.01.2010
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