It is important to remind patients that once their My Health Record is created, they can choose to cancel their My Health Record and permanently delete their information, including backups from the system, at any time.
It will no longer be available to you and your healthcare providers, including in an emergency.
When a patient cancels a record, only copies uploaded to their My Health Record will be deleted. Copies stored on the healthcare provider’s own record-keeping systems will not be deleted.
Any My Health Record that has previously been cancelled will also be permanently deleted from the system. The process to permanently delete these records started on 23 January 2019 and is expected to take up to 90 days.
The ability to permanently delete My Health Record has been made available following recent changes to the My Health Records Act 2012 to strengthen the privacy and security protections within My Health Record.