Corporate Services
24 June 2020
Ms Amy Van Wey Lovatt
Email: [FYI request #12922 email]
Dear Ms Van Wey Lovatt
YOUR OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT (1982) REQUEST HBDHB REF: OIA2020081
I refer to your Official Information Act request transferred in part (questions 4,5,6) by the
Mininstry of Health to district health boards on 12 June 2020. Your questions and HBDHB’s
response is provided below:
Request 4
I request, for each DHB, the total number of incidents involving an allegation that a
member of the public had impersonated a physician, between 1 May 2019 and 31 August
2019, and in the event there were such incidents reported, the date of the alleged incident,
the names of the agencies the incidents were reported to, and a description of the
evidence provided to support the allegation of the incident.
Response
Impersonation of a physician is fraud, and thus a crime. Further, the impersonation of a
physician in a medical setting would be consistent with an incident which has the potential
to cause harm to a patient.
Request 5
I request, for each DHB, the total number of incidents involving an allegation that a
member of the public had gained unauthorised access to a surgical theatre or pathology
laboratory, between 1 May 2019 and 13 August 2019, and in the event there were such
incidents reported, the date of the alleged incident, the names of the agencies the
incidents were reported to, and a description of the evidence provided to support the
allegation of the incident.
Response
Unauthorised access, by a patient, to secure and restricted areas which require employee
key-card access, such as surgical theatres and pathology laboratories, where diagnostic and
biohazardous material are kept, would be an incident which has the potential to cause
harm to a patient or DHB employee. Such an incident has the potential to be a crime, if it
involved breaking and entering or theft of an employee key-card.
C H I E F E X E C U T I V E ’ S O F F I C E
Hawke’s Bay District Health Board
Telephone 06 878 8109 Fax 06 878 1648 Email:
[email address]; www.hawkesbay.health.nz
Corporate Office, Cnr Omahu Road and McLeod Street, Private Bag 9014, Hastings 4156, New Zealand
Request 6
I request, for each DHB, the total number of incidents involving an allegation that a DHB
employee had engaged in the interception of private email communications between a
patient and a DHB employee, between 1 January 2019 and 29 May 2020, and in the event
there were such incidents reported, the dates of the incidents, the names of the agencies
the incidents were reported to, a description of the evidence provided to support the
allegation of the incident, and the outcome of the investigation into the incidents (e.g.,
District or High Court Case Number, Privacy Commissioner ruling, Ombudsman decision,
Human Rights Tribunal ruling, etc.).
Response
According to the MoH standards and legal precedent, patients’ medical records are
confidential and access is restricted to the purpose in which they were obtained (for the
care and treatment of the patient) and may only be accessed with the patients consent.
Please refer to HISO 10064 and the Health Information Privacy Code 1994]. MoH standards
(HISO 10029:2015 Health Information Security Framework) requires DHB’s to take steps to
protect against re-routing or interception of private (email) communications, as the
interception of private communications is a crime under section 216B of the Crimes Act
I confirm that we have no incidents recorded in our event system that match any of these three
requests nor is our Security Services Manager aware of any such incidents.
I trust this information meets your needs. If you would like any further information or clarification
please phone me. If you are not satisfied with this response you may contact the Office of the
Ombudsman, phone 0800 802 602.
Please note that this response, or an edited version of this response, may be published on the
Hawke’s Bay DHB website after your receipt of this response.
Yours sincerely
Robin Whyman
Chief Medical and Dental Officer
Hawke’s Bay District Health Board
cc:
Ministry of Health via email: [email address]
[email address]
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