A leading e-health advisor to the Government claimed that the new national health identity system will have health care electronic identifiers to increase patient privacy.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon claimed to frame a law by the middle of the year that would create unique electronic 16-digit health assigned number to each patient and health provider, which will prove to be a vital step towards national electronic health records.

Dr. Mukesh Haikerwal, the head clinical advisor to the National E-Health Transition Authority, said the identifiers would be patient-controlled and not held on a centralised database.

While all Australian citizens will soon be assigned a 16-digit health ID number, politicians and other known personalities are speculated to take undue advantage by getting false identities to stop their records falling into the wrong hands.

The federal agency unveiled that the safeguards would be set up into the system to combat against the potential risks of exposure to ones information.

Moreover, access to the extra level of protection offered by the false IDs, known by the federally funded National E-Health Transaction Authority as "pseudonymisation", will not be widespread.

Amidst emerging criticism, Health Minister Nicola Roxon remained silent yesterday but has previously said e-health would have strict, legislative protocols to protect patients' medical histories.