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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 4061 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

The Bill covers not only doctors and more conventional health service providers, but also alternative health service providers and a range of other holders of personal health information such as insurance providers. Services for people with disabilities and health-related community services that collect health information are also covered by this legislation.

The major provisions in the Bill have been canvassed during the extensive consultation that occurred following the release of the Government position paper entitled "Health records - Privacy and Access" in May 1997. Over 500 copies of the position paper were sent to government departments, provider representative bodies, community and health service organisations, consumer representative agencies and individuals. The Consumer Health Forum, the Commonwealth Privacy Commission and a number of health providers and consumer bodies have indicated support for the legislation. The AMA and the ACT Division of General Practitioners expressed opposition.

The purpose of the Bill is also to provide a set of privacy principles for consumers in relation to their personal health information. It will provide consumers with access to their personal information which is contained on any records held by health, disability or aged care service providers in the ACT, and to their personal health information, wherever it is held. Currently, the rights of health care consumers to both privacy and access to their health records vary, depending on where the records are held.

Mr Speaker, I would like to highlight some of the major features of the Bill. In the ACT, as in most States and Territories, all patients, with some exceptions, of public health care facilities have access to their own medical records held by that facility through the Freedom of Information Act 1989. The policies of most public facilities encourage clients to see their records, obtain copies of them and have corrections inserted in their records. This is a system that has worked well, with no significant ill effects.

However, common law provisions apply to the records of private medical practitioners, private hospitals and public hospitals other than the Canberra Hospital and to health professionals working outside government agencies. This means that the health records created are owned by the person, or agency, who created them. Patients have a right of access only if they subpoena records. The High Court recently upheld this view in the Breen v. Williams case and confirmed that no common law right of access exists and that any change in this position is up to the legislature, and that is why we are here today.

There is a further anomaly in the ACT, in that patients of Calvary Hospital - a public hospital - do not have a guarantee of access, since the Freedom of Information Act covers only government agencies. Non-government hospitals providing services to public patients are covered by freedom of information in other States. This Bill will provide for a consistent regime for both the public and private sectors. In the interests of consistency, the Bill requires a consequential amendment to the ACT's freedom of information legislation to remove its coverage of personal health information held by health, disability and aged care agencies. Existing freedom of information and privacy legislation will continue to apply to any other records held by those public agencies. The legislation also ensures that information obtained about all users of health services is collected, maintained and used in accordance with established privacy principles.

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