Doctors’ system to report COVID-19 cases receives much-needed overhaul

The system medical professionals use to notify the health department of positive COVID-19 test results has received a much-needed overhaul.

Doctors can now notify authorities of coronavirus cases online.

Until now, health workers had to endure long waits on a phone line to report cases to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).

The change comes as part of a raft of measures to boost contact-tracing capacity.

Altona GP and former President of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, said the change is overdue.

He said the system has “been hammered” and doctors were waiting “a long time” to report positive cases.

“They should be using technology to help them work through this process,” he told Ross and Russel.

“Up until now … it’s like arriving on the sail boat from England in the 1800s and you have a big log book, and you’ve got to write with a quill, it’s almost as bad as that!”

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