With $467 million already spent on the personally controlled e-health record system, Dr Kruys says the project should be scrapped before it burns more cash.
"It's a big mistake they've made. They just keep throwing money at these projects and it's so painful to see. Some of my patients can't even afford medication," says Dr Kruys, who has blogged and spoken about the PCEHR's pitfalls.
He believes that instead of wasting more tax dollars, a fully functioning, cheaper alternative like RecordPoint from Extensia should be adopted.
"It's never too late to cancel a bad project. If no changes are made and if they (the government) don't listen to our feedback, it will just fail," Dr Kruys says.
"The worst thing that could happen is for this to continue and linger on for another five years.
"It's better to stop it now before it keeps bleeding money. The PCEHR will be added to the global scrap heap of IT failures."
Dr Kruys says he will never participate in the PCEHR in its current form nor would he advise his patients to do so.
One major issue is the fact that confidential patient information in the system belongs to the government, which can choose to use the data as it sees fit.
He said this was the first time such private information had gone beyond patient-doctor confidentiality norms.
Dr Kruys's indemnity insurance provides cover for the PCEHR, including privacy breaches and allegations of negligence for failing to detect critical patient information contained in the system.
However, it does not cover fines and civil penalties related to the PCEHR, which is another deterrent to signing up to the system, he says.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Fran Foo
Quelle/Source: Australian IT, 16.07.2013
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