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Do the census, its good for your health

Source: Tairawhiti District Health – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Do the census, its good for your health

Health in Tairāwhiti needs all the funds it can get.

Census day – Tuesday 6 March 2018 – has a big impact on how many health dollars end up in the district. Health funding is population-based. It’s not just the number of people either; older, younger, rural and people on low incomes attract a higher rate of health funding.

This year the census is online. “If a lot of older people don’t complete it, for instance, that will have a significant effect on how much funding we get to provide health services in Tairāwhiti”, says Hauora Tairāwhiti Chief Executive Jim Green.

“The population count for Tairāwhiti in the 2013 census was 43,653, of which 19,683 were Māori. At the time there were closer to 45,000 people enrolled in a Tairāwhiti General Practice. This suggests that around 1500 residents didn’t complete a census or missed out being included in the count. On average each resident is worth approximately $3600 in health dollars. That equates to $5.4 million Tairāwhiti may have missed out on each year since.”

That is a large amount of money for many services we could have provided in the community, in hospital, caring for so many more people.

At the moment we have 47,700 people enrolled with a Tairāwhiti General Practice. National population projections suggest that our population numbers may be closer to 48,700. We really need the Census figures to confirm that significant increase in population. The increase in demand on GPs and Gisborne Hospital suggest that we are serving more people.

“Census data is not only used to determine funding; it is used to help us plan for the future. Having accurate information about our people helps us make decisions about which services are needed and where they should be.”

So please take time to fill out the census and also please make sure family, friends, work mates, everyone you know also helps us to get what we need to make for more and better health care in Tairāwhiti.

All people staying overnight at Gisborne Hospital will be given a paper copy of the census to complete. “We don’t have Wi-Fi on the wards so it would be difficult for many people in hospital to complete online. There will be help from census volunteers to complete the form but friends and family visiting the hospital are asked to assist where possible.”

Do the census at

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UPDATE – Temuka crash

Source: New Zealand Police –

Headline: UPDATE – Temuka crash


Location:

Canterbury

Police and emergency services are now free from the crash which occurred at 2.30pm on SH1 Temuka-Orari Highway in South Canterbury.

Two cars were involved in a collision.  

It can now be confirmed that one person died at the scene.

Another person suffered moderate injuries and was airlifted to hospital while another two people suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene.

Police will continue to investigate the cause of the crash and no more information will be released until all next of kin have been advised.

Posted on

Bay of Plenty

Source: New Zealand Police –

Headline: Bay of Plenty

A slip is blocking both lanes of SH2 (Waiotahe Beach Rd), Waiotahe, Opotiki.

The slip has closed the highway between Parkinson Rd and Pohutukawa Drive.

There are diversions in place along Paerata Ridge Rd and Verrall Rd.

ENDS

Police Media Centre


District:

Bay of Plenty


Description of incident:

Slip blocking SH2, Opotiki

Issued by: 
Police Media Centre
Posted on

Advice for doctors when there’s a complaint

Source: Privacy Commissioner – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Advice for doctors when there’s a complaint

If you work in a small practice or medical centre, there’s every chance you may not have received many requests for personal information from patients. The starting point is to know that the Privacy Act gives people the right to make a request for information that is about them.

Under the Privacy Act, your practice is legally obligated to respond to that request within 20 working days and to provide the information requested, although the law does allow reasons for withholding the information.

Giving access to information can take several forms. It can mean giving a copy of a document; giving a reasonable opportunity to look at a document, or listen to or view a recording; giving a summary of the information; providing a transcript; or giving the information orally – depending on the requester’s preference.

Pointers for responding to a complaint

But here’s the thing. Failing to respond to a request for personal information can result in a complaint from the requester to the Privacy Commissioner. We hope this never happens to you but in case it does, here are some pointers on how best to engage with us.

  1. The first thing to do is talk to us and to tell us what you know about the complaint and the information that’s requested. Our aim is to try and resolve the matter to the satisfaction of both parties – the complainant and the respondent (your practice). Be nice to us because we’re only doing our jobs. We are not advocates for the complainant.
  2. The second thing to observe is timeliness. Respond as promptly as you can to our requests for information. No one wins in a protracted complaints dispute. If a complaint drags on, it can become stressful, tiring and expensive for your practice and the complainant. There are many benefits in resolving a complaint to prevent it becoming a case before the Human Rights Review Tribunal. This can be an even longer and more costly process and, in the end, the Tribunal could well decide in favour of the complainant and against your practice.
  3. The third point is to remember that our goal is to resolve, not to punish. We’re here to mediate and we do this in a number of ways. One of the techniques we use is to call conferences between both parties, but we’d rather keep things less formal  and resolve them quickly, without a situation escalating.

Tell us in confidence

  1. In order for us to review your decision to withhold information from a requester, we will almost always need to see the information.
  2. When you send us the information, what we are doing is reviewing it to see if we agree with your reasons for not handing it over to the requester.
  3. We are not allowed to disclose the information that is being reviewed and we do not disclose the information.

However, when you give us information to review, it will help us if you can tell us clearly what information is being withheld and the reasons why your practice wants to withhold it.

One example is whether to disclose information about a child to a non-custodial parent. While section 22 of the Health Act permits parents and guardians to request their child’s health information, a health agency, such as a GP, can withhold health information where:

  • the child does not want the information to be disclosed;
  • it would not be in the child’s best interests to disclose the information; or
  • one of the other withholding grounds in the Privacy Act applies.

Looking ahead

We have many resources to help medical practices comply with the Privacy Act. Our website has tools such as AskUs – our online privacy FAQs, the Priv-o-matic privacy statement generator, as well as our free online privacy training modules. We have a range of health brochures (in English and Te Reo). All of these are designed to be used to help make privacy easy.

A starting point is to familiarise yourself with our Quick Tour of the Privacy Principles. It may also be a good idea to display it in the administrative area of your practice to help colleagues and employees understand the obligations and responsibilities that come with holding personal information. This way, when you have an encounter with a privacy issue, you’ll know where to start. And if you need to know more, ask us.

Originally published in NZ Doctor (31 January 2018)

Image credit: Blue and silver stethoscope via Pexels

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Posted on

Do you really need that information?

Source: Privacy Commissioner – Press Release/Statement:

Headline: Do you really need that information?

Knowledge is power – a cliché, sure, but for a reason. As an agency, the more you know about your clients, the more effective your service can be. It makes sense to gather as much information as possible about the people you interact with. So why wouldn’t you?

Well, the Privacy Act restricts what personal information you can collect and how you can collect it. The Act also obliges you to keep information safe from misuse or unnecessary disclosure, and make sure it’s accurate.

A quick tour of the privacy principles

Personal information is both a valuable asset and a risk, so it’s worth thinking about whether you really need the information you want to collect.

Reasons for collecting personal information

Do I have a legal reason for collecting personal information? Is that reason connected to my agency’s work? You should ask yourself these questions before collecting personal information.

It might be obvious why you need the information at first, but you may find you only need some of it, or you don’t need it at all.

Deciding what to collect

You should only collect the smallest amount of personal information you need to complete a task. Let’s take landlords collecting information from potential tenants as an example. There’s some information you need, such as:

  • basic personal details
  • credit check information
  • details to check references.

But some collection is harder to justify. People have complained to us about landlords asking for:

  • their weekly income information
  • how much they currently pay in rent
  • the value of their belongings
  • their marital status
  • the make, model, and registration number of their vehicles.

It’s not clear how this information would help you decide if someone would be a suitable tenant, and collecting it seems excessive.

Storing information safely

Principle five of the Act requires you to take reasonable steps to secure the personal information you hold from loss, misuse, and disclosure.

What counts as reasonable depends in part on how much information you hold and how sensitive it is. Holding excessive personal information makes data breaches and accidental disclosures more likely and more serious.

Storage and security of personal information (principle five)

Letting people access their information

Principle six entitles people to access the information you hold about them. If you have lots of information, you’re going to get more requests and you’ll need more sophisticated record keeping so you can answer them.

Access to personal information (principle six)

Responding to requests from law enforcement

Sometimes Police or other government agencies ask for information about someone to help them maintain the law. Principle 11 lets you disclose personal information to these agencies if you decide it’s necessary to maintain the law.

Maintenance of the law

This can be a difficult decision, but collecting less information will make it simpler.

Tools to help you

Our website has a lot of information to help you with collecting information and other obligations you have under the Act.

Get started with our Privacy Impact Assessment Toolkit

Your obligations under the Privacy Act

Image credit: Morepork by Duncan Watson via New Zealand Birds Online

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