[LINK] Your Medicare records online

[Craig Sanders]

On Wed, Mar 03, 2010 at 10:27:13PM +1100, Ivan Trundle wrote:
> 
> On 03/03/2010, at 10:04 PM, Dr Bob Jansen wrote:
> 
> > Do they really need all my blood pressure readings  
> > over the past 20 years, notes of all visits to my GP, etc,
> 
> Depending on the circumstances, yes.
>
> It might not be 20 years of history, but any kind of history can be
> helpful when determining a course of action.

actually, no.

most of what is useful/necessary in emergency treatment can be contained
on a voluntarily-carried card listing your allergies and similar
immediately relevant medical conditions, and contact details for your
doctors and specialists.

in an emergency, doctors don't have time to be reading through your
records. they only want information that is relevant to determining
the immediate treatment (e.g. are you allergic to penicillin?, are you
haemophiliac? what drugs, prescription or otherwise, have you taken in
the past 24 hours?)

more information than that is a distraction and a time-waster.

and it's probably also a legal minefield for doctors - if they miss
some obscure little detail in your records because they were too busy
treating you, that COULD be used against them in a medical negligence
case.

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>