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 activities 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 revokes the Health Practitioners (Protected Quality Assurance Activity—New Zealand Orthopaedic Association Practice Visit Programme) Notice 2016.

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