Pharmacy Daily | PSA urges e-Health rethink

A PROPOSAL by the Federal Opposition which would see it scrap the government’s $467 million e- Health strategy has been criticised by the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. Part of the Coalition’s budget reply included the measure, which was announced yesterday by the Shadow Minister for Finance, Andrew Robb. PSA National President, Warwick Plunkett, said the parties should “think beyond politics when making health policy. “There is no doubt that the development of the eHealth policy has been overly expensiv e and its implementation delayed far too long, but at this stage it would be unwise to simply abolish this strategy,” Plunkett said. Part of the opposition’s rationale is based on privacy concerns, but Plunkett pointed out that “every single day Australians use electronic means to access their sensitive financial and banking details and there is no reason why we can’t do the same with our health records. “The reality is that eHealth is the missing link in enabling genuine collaborative primary healh-care teams to work effectively and improve the wellbeing of all Australians,” Plunkett added. The PSA said the increasing use of multidisciplinary primary healthcare teams, including pharmacists, was “vital to the sustainability of Australia’s health care system”.

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