Hospital Waiting Lists

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:13): The minister said that faxes reduce risks. Can I point out that yesterday I mentioned that the RAH failed to acknowledge a referral to an ophthalmologist, resulting in a patient later losing his eyesight.

The PRESIDENT: It is a supplementary question.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: It is. You just stopped me right as I was getting to the question.

The PRESIDENT: Ask the question.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: The question is: what if the machine isn't checked, or it runs out of paper or is out of order?

The Hon. S.G. WADE (Minister for Health and Wellbeing) (15:14): I certainly accept the point the honourable member is making. Again, I am not trying to defend the medical profession for its love of faxes. My understanding is that they regard it as more secure because you have basically a secure telephone line transmitting material. My understanding is they believe that generally emails are not as secure and should not be used.

But you are quite right, the limitation with faxes is it doesn't open up other opportunities to make sure that people don't fall through the cracks. There are huge opportunities for data analytics and support for patients if their records are electronic. I certainly believe that there is a lot of work being done to support data security in the health environment. If that can build people's confidence, both medical professions and consumers, to have their data available electronically, I think we will all be the winners.