Privacy Policy
Statement:
​The Bream Bay Community Support Trust will always endeavor to promote and protect the privacy
of information collected from and about an individual according to the Privacy Act 2020 and the
Health Information Privacy Code 2020, which was established specifically for the management of
information relating to health and disability support services such as general practice.
Scope: All Staff
Objective:
That all staff will understand, comply with, and implement the requirement of the Health
Information Privacy Code 2020, and will follow the processes regarding handling health information,
as outlined in this policy. This practice has a Patient Management System (PMS) that ensures
security for information within the practice and for transfer and tracking.
Definitions:
Procedure:
1. Management: The Bream Bay Community Support Trust “Privacy Officer” is the Chief
Executive Sharon Russell, who has received training and is aware of her responsibilities as
follows:
a. Ensuring that the practice has the required privacy policies and procedures up to
date and ensure that they are stored in a readily accessible format.
b. Ensuring that all team members have read and understood the policies and
procedures and have updated their personal training record to that effect.
c. Ensuring that the practice complies with the Privacy Act 2020 in relation to
employees, and the Health Information Privacy Code 2020 in relation to patient
information.
d. Dealing with requests made to the practice about personal or employment
information.
e. Briefing the team on changes to practice processes.
f. Alerting the practice team to privacy complaints received and what will be done to
prevent the same thing happening again.
g. Upskilling the team on workshop information/case studies (i.e., providing training in
team meetings).
h. Overseeing the orientation (privacy) process.
i. Advising management about recommended training opportunities to upskill the team.
Privacy Policy
j. Ensuring training records are up to date.
k. Ensuring that the privacy complaints received are dealt with in the correct manner
and working with the Privacy Commissioner or investigating officer, should the need arise.
l. Ensuring that there are clear guidelines on who can access patient information and
that handling health information is done according to practice policies and
procedures. A copy of the Health Information Privacy Code 2020 is held by the Chief Executive
who is the Privacy Officer.
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2. Confidentiality: This will be ensured using the Privacy legislation, by having signed
confidentiality agreements with all staff and contractors, and with the duty of staff to
maintain confidentiality.
3. Management of Confidential Waste: Confidential waste is shredded and/or contained in a
secure, locked bin and is picked up and disposed of by Waste Management Technical
Services.
4. Training: All staff at Bream Bay Community Support Trust must complete the online training
Privacy ABC and Privacy Act 2020 via the Privacy Commission website, as well as be familiar
with the Health Information Privacy Code 2020. Once completed, staff will be able to
demonstrate/describe the process for the collection, use, storage, disposal, and disclosure of
individual patient information. As new staff are employed, they will need to demonstrate
that they have undertaken recent training relevant to Bream Bay Community Support Trust.
Staff training records will validate completion of this training.
References and relevant legislation:
Privacy Act 2020
Health Information Privacy Code 2020
Quality Measures:
Online Staff Training in Privacy and informed consent via Privacy commissioner website
Staff Training Records