Two Blue Mountains families got the shock of their lives when they received a letter from the federal health department advising a digital health record had been created for their loved ones who had died more than 20 years ago.
Mountains residents are among the first to trial My Health Record which is an online summary of a person’s health information, a system being created at a cost of $485 million over three years.
Alison McLaren’s nanna Muriel Stratton died 20 years ago, and the letter arrived at her mum Lyn McLaren’s Winmalee home.
"It's bad enough if it's your grandmother, who has lived a full life, but if it was your child who had died, it would be devastating to receive this letter,” Ms McLaren said.
"I don't understand how the database used could be so wrong. Twenty years is more than half my lifetime and it's concerning that the information used is so out of date."
Her mum was quite upset when she received the letter.
“It was a shock to receive a letter addressed to mum just after the 20th anniversary of her death. This kind of mistake is hurtful and distressing," Lyn McLaren said.
It’s not the first health department mistake the family has encountered. A couple of years after Muriel’s death a new Medicare card arrived and they advised Medicare of the situation back then.
Alison McLaren would like the health department to apologise for the latest mistake and review the system.
Blaxland resident Roger Grealy has also been affected, a letter arriving for his late wife Lillian, a teacher, who died 22 years ago.
“It was rather poignant thinking about my late wife and getting teary about it,” he said.
“It’s all there [a death certificate] on official government records. It’s just a joke really,” Mr Grealy said.
Both families contacted Labor candidate for Macquarie Susan Templeman about their concerns and she wrote on their behalf to Health Minister Sussan Ley.
“My biggest concern is the system is clearly not able to identify people accurately … how accurate is the rest of the information and how secure is the system?” Ms Templeman said. “What process is in place so this doesn’t keep happening?”
A Department of Human Services spokeswoman said the department did not have a date of death recorded against these customers records and sincerely apologised for any distress caused.
“We have reviewed our data and taken action to reduce the likelihood of this occurring again in the future,” she said.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said they were contacting the families to extend a sincere apology.
