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Emergency contacts

Adding emergency contacts helps your healthcare providers to contact your family member, close friend or carer during an emergency.

Access to your emergency contact details

You can store details of people you would like to be contacted in a medical emergency in your record. This could be family members, or close friends or carers. Make sure these people provide permission before you add their personal information.

Your emergency contacts will be available to healthcare providers involved in your care. People listed may be contacted if required, so it’s important their details are kept current. You cannot hide or control access to your emergency contact information. 

Nominated representatives can view your emergency contact details.

Full access representatives and authorised representatives can view, add, and edit your information, including emergency contacts.

How to add emergency contacts

To follow these steps, you will need to have My Health Record linked to your myGov account.

Getting started:

  1. Sign in to My Health Record via myGov:
  2. Select the record you would like to update.
  3. Click the Profile & Settings tab in the top navigation menu.
  4. Select Emergency Contacts Details from the drop-down list.
  5. Select Add an emergency contact.
  6. Select the contact type from the drop-down list. You can choose from: 
    • Emergency Contact
    • Next of Kin
    • Carer
  7. Enter their details including first and last name, phone number and email address.
  8. If you are completing the details of an emergency contact or next of kin, enter details of the person’s relationship to you (e.g. sister, son, wife, husband).
  9. Select Save.

How to update an emergency contact

To follow these steps, you will need to have My Health Record linked to your myGov account.

Getting started:

  1. Sign in to your myGov account:
  2. Select My Health Record from your list of ‘Linked services’.
  3. From your My Health Record welcome page, select the record you want to access and update.
  4. Find the emergency contact you wish to update and click Edit.
  5. Update the details.
  6. Select Save to confirm your changes.

How to remove an emergency contact

To follow these steps, you will need to have My Health Record linked to your myGov account.

Getting started:

  1. Sign in to your myGov account:
  2. Select My Health Record from your list of ‘Linked services’.
  3. Find the emergency contact you wish to update and click Edit.
  4. Select the Remove button next to the contact’s name.

Online learning module

We have an online learning module to help you understand more about emergency contacts in My Health Record.

Access the online learning module