Records system resistance

A Dunedin GP says he is being forced to join a shared medical records system which gives the Southern District Health Board  a "blank cheque" to take more patient information.

Dr Steve Searle, of Green Island Family Health Care, in Dunedin, said the board would cut off the existing computer program, iSoft, if practices refused to join.

"As of this morning, [iSoft] was still running, but they’re threatening to cut it off, and they’re telling us if we don’t go on to the new system they’re going to cut off the old one, so it’s like a gun to my head," Dr Searle told the Otago Daily Times yesterday.

Dr Searle said he supported the sharing of core information such as patient allergies and medication lists, which was what HealthOne shared now.

But he opposed the sharing of patient notes, and said this was possible under the HealthOne contract.

He said the contract allowed the SDHB to take more information after running a consultation process.

A hospital doctor did not need to see private comments or patient notes, he said.

"Dunedin is a small place."

There were patient safety concerns.

"When I write a note it’s for use within my practice. If someone comes and looks at it in the wrong context it can cause a problem."

The board should have run both systems in tandem for a time to smooth the transition, Dr Searle said.

"If they take away iSoft, which we use a lot to look up when patient appointments are and hospital results ... our practice will become inefficient and our patients will be indirectly harmed because of lack of information."

The switch-off date for iSoft was supposed to have been September 27.

HealthOne launched that day with 61 out of 81 southern GP practices and thousands of other health practitioners. 

Patients are included in HealthOne unless they opt out.

SDHB chief medical officer Nigel Millar said most GPs took a "different view" from Dr Searle.

Dr Millar said HealthOne did not give the board an automatic right to more patient data.

"We’ve had discussion about [sharing patient notes]. If that was to happen, there’d be a full discussion and consultation process."

HealthOne was voluntary, and GPs did not have to sign up.

"I don’t think it’s a gun to their head. I think it’s a reasonable request if they want to have access to a shared record in the future," Dr Millar said.

eileen.goodwin@odt.co.nz