The seven-day delay before pathology and diagnostic imaging results posted on the My Health Record can be viewed by patients will be scrapped, health officials say.

Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler had called the delay “a barrier to good clinical practice [that caused] untold frustration for Australians” as he launched the consultation on scrapping it last year. 

But doctors warned that patients who saw their results before speaking with a clinician could be panicked unnecessarily.

This week, the Department of Health and Aged Care said there would be some exceptions if a delay was clearly needed to protect patients.