Page 433 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 21 March 2023
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Questions without notice
Canberra Health Services—data security
MS LEE: My question is to the Minister for Mental Health.
Minister, I refer to an email sent by the Chief Executive Officer of CHS regarding patient privacy, reported today in the media. The email stated, “In recent weeks we've discovered a serious breach in the privacy of patient health records within one of our teams, extending back some time. Just to be clear, I am not talking about an accidental breach. What I am talking about is whole clinical records, some scanned from hard copies, and deliberately emailed to people outside the organisation, breaching the privacy of consumers over a period of years.”
Minister, how was this serious breach of privacy discovered?
MS DAVIDSON: Thank you for the question. Patient privacy and confidentiality is critically important. It was very distressing to see that had happened. CHS understands its obligations in relation to patient privacy and confidentiality, and there are processes and procedures for how to deal with a breach of that nature. Those have been put into place, and there is an external investigation ongoing, so I cannot actually talk in detail—
Ms Lee: Point of order.
MR ACTING SPEAKER: If you could be seated, Minister.
Ms Lee: The question was very straightforward—how was this breach of privacy discovered? I ask that you direct the minister to be relevant.
MR ACTING SPEAKER: I think the minister is being relevant to the question.
Mr Rattenbury: On the point of order—it would be helpful to set a standard early in question time. Ms Lee gave the minister 18 seconds to answer the question.
Ms Lee: She was finishing up. She was asked to sit down.
Mr Rattenbury: That was your judgement, Ms Lee. The minister has time—
MR ACTING SPEAKER: Mr Rattenbury, we will proceed. Ms Davidson?
MS DAVIDSON: I would note that I did not go to sit down until after Mr Acting Speaker had instructed me to be seated while we were dealing with the process point.
To return to the question, which was about how the privacy breach was discovered: there are processes and procedures in place for what happens when a breach of this nature occurs. Those have been followed and an external investigation is currently under way. I cannot speak to any of the detail of the matter while that is happening.
MS LEE: Minister, what are those procedures and policies that were followed, and when was this breach of privacy discovered?
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