PRIVACY and  HEALTH LAW NEWS

28.01.07

Perth hospital probes use of leaked patient photo
A Perth hospital is investigating how a photograph of one of its patients ended up on the front page of a newspaper. (ABC News, 25 January 2006)

17.10.06

Privacy law passed despite abuse claims
The personal details of Australians caught in disasters or emergencies will be easier to obtain under changes to privacy legislation which passed the Senate. (The Age/AAP, 17 October 2006)

18.07.06

Unsecured email sparks dispute

Austin Health (Melbourne) has been emailing discharge summaries to patients' GPs instead of sending them by fax or post, following a decision by the hospital's privacy committee that the benefits of rapid communication outweighed the risks to patient confidentiality.

The practice is in breach of security guidelines established by the General Practice Computing Group to safeguard personal data in medical systems. "GPs should not send sensitive clinical information over the internet without encryption," said associate professor Peter Schattner, a GP and principal author of the group's guidelines.

David Vaile, vice-chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation, said the Austin controversy "flags the absence" of a national e-health privacy policy.

Source: Karen Dearne, The Australian.