The Western Australian Department of Health holds extensive data bases of health information of WA citizens. The Health Consumer’s Council acknowledges the significant resource such data bases provide for researchers into health and health service planning, in turn providing government with solid data upon which to plan for the future and respond to areas of unmet need.
The Health Consumers’ Council is of the view that the holding of this information should be conditional on:
- The disclosure to the public of the fact that these stores of health information exist
- Proper and rigorous scrutiny of all requests for access to the data
- The entitlement to opt out of inclusion in a data base
- Strong penalties for misuse and optimal security protection for the data
- The identification of all data and respect for an individual’s privacy
