Young residents will have until October to opt-out if they do not want their medical records stored online for third party organisations to potentially view.
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The federal government has announced patients will be able to remove their digitised records from the My Health Record website between July 16 and October 15.
The online service is intended to provide Australians with easy access to medical history. It has the potential to provide uniformed healthcare across multiple clinicians.
Contentiously, the records may also be given to third parties, including commercial organisations, if they can prove to be using the information in the public interest. It is yet unclear what constitutes the public interest.
Patients may opt-out of the service by visiting the My Health Record website or calling the service number in the allotted period.
However, many older Australians who have little access to the internet, or who are unable to call on their own, may be unwittingly opted-in to the service.
