NSW: Doctors are sending medical files overseas to cut costs

AAP General News (Australia)
04-14-2007
NSW: Doctors are sending medical files overseas to cut costs

The Sunday Telegraph says doctors are breaching privacy laws and could be endangering
patients' lives by sending medical files overseas to be typed up cheaply.

The paper says its investigation has found a growing number of Australian hospitals
and medical practices are outsourcing secretarial work to companies in India .. Pakistan
and the Philippines.

The newspaper says at least four Sydney hospitals and hundreds of doctors are using
cheap labour to transcribe digitally recorded verbal notes online.

But experts have warned that if key medical terms are mixed up by foreign workers ..

who often do not have English as their first language .. it could prove lethal.

AAP RTV acb/wz

KEYWORD: FILES (SYDNEY)

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