AQB v St Vincent's Hospital Sydney Limited [2013] NSWADT 210

Administrative Decisions Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: AQB v St Vincent's Hospital Sydney Limited [2013] NSWADT 210 Hearing dates: On the papers Decision date: 24 September 2013 Jurisdiction: General Division Before: Naida Isenberg, Judicial member Decision: The application is dismissed Catchwords: Discharge summary and medical records - whether health information - whole document to be considered as health information Legislation Cited: Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 Category: Principal judgment Parties: AQB (Applicant) St Vincents Hospital (Respondent) Representation: AQB (Applicant in person) St Vincents Hospital (Respondent) File Number(s): 133190

reasons for decision

Background 1In late 2012 'AQB', the Applicant was a patient at the Respondent hospital. She was discharged into the care of her General Practitioner, Dr Zaki. 2She complained to the Health Care Complaints Commission ('HCCC') about her treatment by the Respondent. 3On 2 June 2013 'AQB' lodged an application for review of the Respondent's conduct under s.21 of the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 ('HRIP Act') and s.55 of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998 ('PPIP Act'), alleging that the Respondent had breached several principles of those Acts. 4The details of the Applicant's claim were quite unclear; however, at a planning meeting I conducted on 23 July 2013 the Applicant summarised her complaint as follows, namely that the Respondent had disclosed: its discharge summary to the Applicant's General Practitioner (Dr Zaki) in breach of both the HRIP Act and PPIP Act; and the Applicant's medical records to the HCCC in breach of the HRIP Act and PPIP Act 5In subsequent submissions the applicant appeared to no longer be concerned about the discharge summary, but for completeness, I have addressed this concern, whether the applicant continues to press it or not. I should also observe that the applicant raised in her submissions complaints about the conduct of others (eg disclosure of personal information to Centrelink and to her employer) but these are outside the scope of the review. 6The Respondent did not dispute that its medical records department had sent the discharge summary together with a cover sheet to Dr Zaki on 20 September 2012, nor that it had supplied the Applicant's medical records to the HCCC.