Australia's Department of Health reported nearly 300,000 Australians have removed their records from the country's new national EHR, according to ZDNet.
Four things to know:
1. The Australian government is working to create a national EHR, dubbed My Health Record, for all 24.7 million of its citizens. The government's vision for the universal EHR is to facilitate better care coordination, however, privacy advocates and health practitioners have questioned the program, citing distrust in the government's security and privacy practices.
2. Nearly 300,000 Australians who had records in the My Health Record system had canceled their record as of Nov. 11, 2018, the department said in a recent response to Senate Estimates Questions on Notice.
3. Beyond cancelations, more than 20,000 Australians opted out of the EHR the first day the government offered the option in July 2018. As of mid-October, the number of Australians who had opted out of the system was 1.15 million. In its recent statement, the department said it was "unable to provide a response" regarding the most up-to-date number of opt outs, according to ZDNet.
4. The department said it expects the number of complaints regarding the My Health Record system to increase once all Australians have records on the system. To address this issue, the department said it will hire an additional four staff members to manage problems and complaints for the system once all records are created, doubling its current staff assigned to that task.