Wednesday, 3 June 2026

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:33): (1339) My question today is to the Minister for Health. A new Department of Health blueprint has flagged the use of AI to identify urgent cases and overhaul outpatient systems, but there has been little detail publicly about how the technology would work, what patient safeguards would be in place or how sensitive health data would be protected. Minister, where is this process up to, and what assurances can you provide the chamber that health information and private patient data will be protected?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Health, Minister for Water) (12:34): Thank you very much, Mr Puglielli, for that question. What this question does is a really important thing in a number of ways. It identifies the intersection between the way in which we use and deploy technology on the one hand and the very human elements of providing care to people in need on the other. This is where the blueprint provides a really wonderful way for us to better understand the intersection between technology and virtual care on the one hand, with improved efficiencies, particularly in administrative systems, and making sure that when and as we allocate resources, we are putting them in the areas where they can make the most difference.

This is also where we want to make sure that we are seeking the guidance of technology whilst also having that operate as a shadow system so that it operates alongside those human systems that already operate to ensure that we understand in the first instance what those improvements look like and that we can develop and incorporate continuous improvement in administrative systems in the way in which options and pathways are identified for care, the way in which we can understand where and how our resources are moving around an incredibly complex system, and the way in which we can add to that without detracting from or diminishing the work that people are doing within the system. Whether that is about the movement to electronic medical records and making sure that we can automate the use of technology in that space right through to working with the way in which resources are allocated for the purpose of triage, we know that tech can make a really big difference. We will continue to roll out those reforms as part of the blueprint, but that, Mr Puglielli, is actually an ongoing process. This is something for which we have developed a blueprint in really careful consultation with industry and with workers in the sector to deliver, and we will make sure that we also continue to make sure that as that work on AI continues we have the relevant safeguards in place.

This is something that is happening globally. We know that AI is in a really strong position to be able to assist in the implementation and delivery of strategies and blueprints and reforms that are incentivising better human outcomes. Again, it is ongoing work. Digital solutions are a really important part of the way in which we deliver health. The virtual emergency department, for example, is receiving about a thousand calls a day, and it sits alongside the work that we are doing, whether with telehealth or with in-person presentations to the emergency departments. The virtual clinics that we have got, the virtual women’s clinics that we have got, the work in community health – it is a spectrum of options. The more we do to provide people with better options, including through the deployment of technology, the better our patient outcomes, the better chance we have to be able to provide people with care closer to home or indeed in their homes and the better clinical outcomes we have as well. There are really robust protections for the work and privacy associated with patient data, and we will continue to work alongside the safeguards that operate now to make sure that they continue and are strengthened over time.

 Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:37): Thank you, Minister, for the response. Minister, will you rule out contracting Palantir Technologies to undertake this work?

 Harriet SHING (Eastern Victoria – Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Health, Minister for Water) (12:37): Mr Puglielli, the Department of Health is putting up guidance shortly in relation to how new and emerging technology can assist with the delivery of better systems that are geared entirely toward an end result of better patient care and safer patient care as well. That will be something that is subject to a procurement process. Ministers, for very good reasons, do not make those procurement decisions. That is something which, again, I will not comment on, as it relates to a process that absolutely and appropriately needs to sit independently of the work that this portfolio does.