The Federal Government has moved to allay concerns about privacy protections in its My Health Record system, announcing changes to allow the deletion of records and restrict government agencies' access to patient data.

Key points: Greg Hunt insists there were no problems with existing legislation, but says he's happy to make "additional reassurances" to address privacy concerns

Greg Hunt insists there were no problems with existing legislation, but says he's happy to make "additional reassurances" to address privacy concerns Opt-out period may be extended a month, but now records can be permanently deleted even after the deadline

Opt-out period may be extended a month, but now records can be permanently deleted even after the deadline Police and government agencies will now require a court order to access patients' data without their consent

Health Minister Greg Hunt met with doctors from the Australian Medical Association and College of General Practitioners last night to discuss privacy concerns about the Government's online health database, and announced a number of changes to the legislation surrounding the system.

People will now be able to withdraw from My Health Record after the opt-out period ends and have all information on their electronic health record deleted.

Under the original plan, some basic information about all records would have been kept for up to 130 years, even if a patient asked for it to be deleted.

The legislation will also be changed to ensure police and government agencies cannot access information against a patient's wish without a court order.

The electronic health record could include information such as prescriptions, allergies and medical summaries.

"The Digital Health Agency's policy is clear and categorical — no documents have been released in more than six years and no documents will be released without a court order," Mr Hunt said in a statement.

"This will be enshrined in legislation. This change to the My Health Record Act will therefore remove any ambiguity on this matter."

The Government has also indicated it is likely to extend the opt-out period for My Health Record for an additional month beyond the current deadline of October 15.

Concern about potential problems with privacy had been growing, with claims police and other agencies would be able to access data without a court order or a warrant.

The current legislation does not specifically state that a court order is required to access a patient's record.

This morning, Mr Hunt said he hoped the extra privacy protections would end the controversy over My Health Record.

"We've moved very quickly to listen to the concerns of doctors," he said.

"They were sensible and reasonable suggestions and requests from the medical authorities and I've been very happy to work with them."

Hunt insists changes unnecessary, but legislation is now iron-clad

The Health Minister maintained there were no real problems with the first incarnation of My Health Record, but said he was happy to provide "additional reassurances" on privacy to doctors and patients.

"After six years and with 6 million records there haven't been any releases, so it's to deal with a question some have raised — could this ever happen?" Mr Hunt said.

"It couldn't, but we will make that iron-clad, crystal clear and unbreakable in legislation by strengthening Labor's 2012 legislation."

Australian Medical Association president Tony Bartone said even though there had so far been no issues with this kind of access thus far, it was important that some kind of protection was enshrined in legislation.

"Even though that hasn't occurred thus far, the legislation did create that ambiguity that it might be possible, and might be accessible without a court order," Dr Bartone said.

"This has now removed that possibility, that possibility is completely extinguished and the drafting of the legislation will ensure that for confidence for patients."

He said Government had now dealt with doctors' concerns about privacy.

"This system is still in evolution, but is better than what we currently have in terms of collating and coordinating a summary of all the medical data in various parts of the system," he said.

"After the assurances we received last night and the commitment to strengthen the legislation, we can now move forward and have certainty around the protections to the privacy of those records that our patients expect."

Federal MPs including Liberal Tim Wilson and Labor's Ed Husic had both said they were taking themselves out of the system.

Mr Wilson said the changes announced last night had addressed his concerns and should restore public confidence.

Loading

The Federal Opposition has previously called for the opt-out period to be extended to give people more time to decide whether they want their medical records stored electronically.

Deputy Labor Leader Tanya Plibersek said while the Labor Party had not seen the detail of the changes, it would welcome anything that boosted consumer confidence in the system's privacy protections.

"In principle, anything that gives health consumers more confidence that their information is being kept privately is very important," she said.

But Labor's health spokeswoman Catherine King said the Government should suspend the roll-out until other issues were resolved.

"Every single day we are seeing more and more questions raised about the implementation of the My Health Record, the Government has no choice but to suspend the opt-out rollout," Ms King said.

"We've seen claims around domestic violence survivors, the possibility that non-custodial parents may be able to create records for their children and use those records to track down the location of their children and their partners.

"The Government needs to deal with that issue [and those] around cyber security."