Healthpoint announced the agreement to the Australian Stock Exchange on Friday morning, but it took the Victoria's OCSC by surprise. The office rushed to instruct Healthpoint spokesperson James Scobie not to make any further comment to the media regarding the announcement.
Scobie, who spoke freely about the announcement until it was brought to the commission's attention, said Healthpoint did not act prematurely by releasing the information.
However, its clear that Victoria's OCSC has some misgivings about the information contained in the announcement and Scobie declined to the opportunity to discuss why the commission had become secretive about the trial.
According to Healthpoint the agreement allows them to install the new information service in correction facilities "throughout Victoria". However there doesn't appear to be any guarantee that the trial will get off the ground as a result of the agreement.
A spokesperson for Victoria's Office of Correctional Services Commission who commented on the trial before the gag came into place, said the trial was being conducted on a voluntary basis.
"It's entirely to the prison health service whether they want to participate or not...it will also be up to each individual prison as to whether they want to participate in the project or not," said the spokesperoson.
For now, Victoria's OCS has refusing to provide any official comments on the new health information system.
