Taranaki District Health Board
Private Bag 2016
New Plymouth 4620
New Zealand
Telephone 06 753 6139
Fax: 06 753 7770
Email
: [email address]
www.tdhb.org.nz
Taranaki Base Hospital
Private Bag 2016
New Plymouth 4620
New Zealand
Phone: 06 753 6139
Fax: 06 753 7710
Hāwera Hospital
9 July 2020
Post Office Box 98
Hāwera
New Zealand
Phone: 06 278-9929
Fax: 06 278 9910
Stratford Health Centre Phone: 06 765 7189
Amy S Van Wey Lovatt
Opunake Medical Centre
Email:
[FYI request #12922 email]
(CoastalCare)
Phone: 06 761 7324
Pātea Health Centre
Phone: 06 273 8088
Waitara Health Centre
Phone: 06 754 7150
Dear Ms Lovatt
Mōkau Health Centre
Phone: 06 752 9723
Re:
Official Information Act
I am responding on behalf of Taranaki District Health Board (DHB) to your OIA request of 29 May 2020, which
was partially transferred to Taranaki DHB on 12 June 2020 by the Ministry of Health. You have requested the
following information:
Request 4: 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. 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.
Taranaki DHB response: Nil.
Request 5: 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. 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.
Taranaki DHB response: Nil.
Request 6: 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 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
Continued…
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.).”
Taranaki DHB response: Nil.
Taranaki DHB has a Code of Conduct policy which is signed by all Taranaki DHB employees when they
commence employment. A copy of this policy is attached for your information.
I trust the above information answers your OIA request.
Yours sincerely
Gillian Campbell
Chief Operating Officer
Enc.
