Your Medical Records Now Belong to the State

One of the most concerning trends in Victoria in the last decade has been the attrition of our basic human rights vs the State. The phenomenon came under the spotlight during COVID, but the trend preceded the pandemic and has continued after it. On February 7, 2024, Victorians will lose another important right – the right to decide who they want to share their medical records with, and who not.

On this day, the Health Legislation Amendment (Information Sharing) Act 2023 will come into effect. That law establishes a centralised electronic system (we all know how this story ends) – managed by the Victorian government – collecting and amassing all public health records of all Victorians. The information that is fed into the system will be available not just to hospitals but also to ambulance services, public health services, public health centres, the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing, any prescribed entity or prescribed public health entity and finally, “a multi-purpose service”, whatever that means.

I list them so that you get a sense of the vast, uncontrolled swathe of strangers who will be able to access your most intimate physical and mental health records at the press of a button. A small number of keystrokes could compromise your name! Here are the most chilling words in the Act (The emphasis is mine):

Note well, no consent required:

1/   A participating health service may collect, use or disclose specified patient health information as permitted or authorised by this Part without the consent of the person to whom the information relates. 

2/  The Secretary may collect, use or disclose specified patient health information as permitted or authorised by this Part without the consent of the person to whom the information relates. 

In short, no one will ever need to ask you before they share your medical information into and out of the centralised information system, and there is no option for you to actively opt out of having all or specific medical information of yours shared. Once Victorians have interacted with the health system, there will be no way they can control the information. 

Now think of the kind of intimate details of our lives we share with our doctors, counsellors, therapists and psychologists – details not just about our illnesses, but also family history, past traumas, relationship troubles, addictions and lapses in judgement in our personal lives. As of February 7 all those details will become the property of the Victorian government – to be shared, discussed, disclosed by strangers to strangers without you being able to exercise any control. We are told to just trust the system that the information will not be misused. Only, we know that health professionals are just humans, full of follies like the rest of us. 

What is most galling is that all this is being done in the name of safeguarding Victorians’ interests. We are told it would make decision-making about health faster, better. 

But here’s why it is not about you. Because if it were really about your interest – you would be given the right to decide what, where, with whom and under what circumstances private medical information could be shared. Because only you truly understand the complexity of your circumstances and what they warrant. 

This Act is about the cold, impersonal and inept state Labor Government using it vast powers to make its life easier at the cost of your privacy and dignity.  Frankly, it is outrageous.

Nick McGowan is a Liberal MP representing the North Eastern Region in Victoria’s Legislative Council