The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has urged the government to strengthen governance arrangements for the PCEHR and to expedite the establishment of the proposed Australian Commission for eHealth (ACeH), but has rejected suggestions that uploading documents be mandatory in order to claim certain MBS item numbers.

In a submission to the Department of Health on the PCEHR and Healthcare Identifiers (HI) Service legislation discussion paper, the RACGP says it strongly supports the establishment of the ACeH but would like more clarity around the transition arrangements and would also like the whole process to be expedited.

“Governance of the PCEHR should be streamlined and transparent and overseen by ACeH, which should be responsible and accountable for the whole PCEHR system including any product design and release,” the college says.