Govt launches e-health records inquiry

The federal government is set to launch an inquiry into Labor's under-used $1 billion electronic health records system.

Health Minister Peter Dutton said the system cost $1 billion but so far only a few hundred doctors were uploading patients' records into it.

He said this was another Labor problem, although not in the same league as the National Broadband Network (NBN).

Mr Dutton said there were savings to be made in the health budget through the electronics records system.

"The problem is that the former government spent about $1 billion in this area and the number of people actively using the records numbers in the thousands," he told Sky News.

"There are only a few hundred doctors actually uploading details into people's files. It has been a scandal. On those numbers it runs at about $200,000 a patient."

Mr Dutton said the inquiry would examine, the funding, contracts, governance arrangements and contracts.

"If we don't get it right, I suspect we are going to be having the same discussion in five years time, having spent more money but no patient outcomes," he said.

The inquiry will be headed by Richard Royle, executive director of UnitingCare Health in Queensland, who has overseen introduction of an electronic health system in their hospital network.

Also on the inquiry will be Australian Medical Association head Steve Hambleton.

"I have asked them to take public submissions to see how we can get this thing back on track because this is a problem, not of the same financial scale as the NBN in terms of the problems going forward," he said.

"It is at its core a Labor mess and we want to clean it up."

Mr Dutton said he wanted to make sure the money being spent was spent efficiently.

"At the moment it's a meaningless record, doctors won't embrace it, they are not populating the information, patients are missing out and taxpayers are copping the cost," he said.