Audit of administrative access to medical records held in hospital and health services

Today, the Chair of the Justice, Integrity and Community Safety parliamentary committee tabled OIC’s report about how two hospital and health services facilitate individuals’ access to medical records.

The audit found that people seeking access to medical records from these agencies generally receive a good service. However, our audit identified opportunities for improvement.

The report makes four recommendations to each hospital and health service to strengthen their access arrangements for medical records.

The audit identified key factors for providing a member of the public with timely and effective access to government-held information. The report recommends that all agencies ensure their administrative access arrangements are:

• well-designed – responsive to community needs, with built-in privacy protections
• supported to be efficient and effective by a toolkit of good policies, procedures and practices
• an efficient alternative to formal access applications – quick, easy, cost-effective, thorough and reliable
• part of an agency’s everyday business operations – well-managed, well understood by all staff, monitored to maintain utility and promoted to the community.

Read the key findings and access the report.