Doctor Mike Freelander, the federal member for Macarthur, says the new National Cancer Screening Register is just privatising another part of our health system.
Health Minister Sussan Ley says the register is aimed at saving more lives through increased detection, treatment and prevention of some of the country’s biggest killers.
But during a doorstop interview in parliament house, the newly elected Labor MP yesterday hit out at what he said was “just another part of our health system privatised’’.
“It’s a great tragedy,’’ Dr Freelander told reporters.
“It’s going to be irreversible – selling it off to Telstra, with very little discussion – and it really bodes very badly for the future.
“A lot of our very important health information will now be in the hands of a private company – it’s pretty much irreversible.
“It means that any sort of research that needs to be done, people will have to probably pay a private company for that information.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“And they say it’s only for five years but it really will be indefinite and it is a great tragedy and I think it has been allowed to happen without any proper discussion.[/social_quote]
“The government has already signed off on the contract, the bills had to be amended, they were so poorly put together, and it really bodes ill for the future.
“The government, the Health Minister and the Prime Minister should be ashamed of themselves, and to me it’s a really, really important thing – and bad thing – that’s happened, and Australians will be paying the price for that for many years to come,’’ Dr Freelander said.
The National Cancer Screening Register will replace eight separate State and Territory cervical cancer registers.
Health minister Ley says it will ensure Australia remains a world leader in the early detection of cancers to save more lives.
Ms Ley said that protection of personal information in the register would be critical and it would be built in accordance with strict data security requirements and Commonwealth cybersecurity guidelines for new infrastructure.
Telstra Health will be the service provider after being appointed by the Department of Health and the minister says it will be required to comply with all legal and legislative requirements.
