Health Practitioners (Protected Quality Assurance Activity—Wairarapa DHB Clinical Society Morbidity and Mortality Meeting) Notice 2021

2021/410

Coat of Arms of New Zealand

Health Practitioners (Protected Quality Assurance Activity—Wairarapa DHB Clinical Society Morbidity and Mortality Meeting) Notice 2021

Pursuant to section 54(3) of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, the Minister of Health, being satisfied of the matters set out in that subsection, gives the following notice.

Notice

1 Title

This notice is the Health Practitioners (Protected Quality Assurance Activity—Wairarapa DHB Clinical Society Morbidity and Mortality Meeting) Notice 2021.

2 Commencement

This notice comes into force on the day after the date of its notification in the Gazette.

3 Interpretation

In this notice,—

specified health practitioner means the following health practitioners employed or engaged by Wairarapa DHB:

(a)

hospital-based clinical practitioners, including—

(i)

medical doctors:

(ii)

nursing staff:

(iii)

allied health practitioners; and

(b)

community-based clinical practitioners, including—

(i)

general practitioners:

(ii)

nursing staff

Wairarapa DHB means the Wairarapa District Health Board established by or under section 19(1) of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000.

4 Declaration of protected quality assurance activity

(1)

The quality assurance activity described in subclause (2) is protected to the extent that it is undertaken by the Wairarapa DHB in relation to specified health practitioners.

(2)

The activity is the Wairarapa DHB Clinical Society Morbidity and Mortality Meeting and involves—

(a)

quarterly meetings to present, discuss, analyse, and give feedback on clinical cases of mortality and morbidity issues relevant to the Wairarapa DHB as a whole; and

(b)

verbal presentations at those meetings of clinical cases, reports, reviews, and medical evidence.

Dated at Wellington this 22nd day of November 2021.

Hon Andrew Little,
Minister of Health.

Explanatory note

This note is not part of the notice, but is intended to indicate its general effect.

This notice comes into force on the day after the date of its notification in the Gazette. It declares the quality assurance activity described in clause 4 to be protected.

Quality assurance activities are activities that are undertaken to improve the practices or competence of health practitioners by assessing the health services performed by those practitioners. The effect of protecting a quality assurance activity is that—

  • any information that becomes known solely as a result of the activity is confidential; and

  • any documents brought into existence solely for the purposes of the activity are confidential; and

  • the persons who engage in the activity in good faith are immune from civil liability.

The protections afforded by this notice are subject to certain statutory exceptions. For example, this notice does not prohibit the disclosure of information that does not identify, either expressly or by implication, a particular individual.

This notice remains in force for 5 years, unless sooner revoked.

Issued under the authority of the Legislation Act 2012.

Date of notification in Gazette: 2 December 2021.

This notice is administered by the Ministry of Health.