Protected information
Quality assurance committees have special protections under legislation that cover:
- reports or documents created by or for the committee
- information in the reports or documents
- information committee members or relevant persons got during their work for the committee.
These materials can't be accessed by court orders or used in legal cases. Members and relevant persons can't be forced to provide them or give evidence about them, except in cases involving offences against the quality assurance committee legislation.
Protection from liability
Committee members and relevant persons can't be held civilly liable for actions or decisions made honestly and without negligence in their role.
If they face legal costs the group that established the committee must cover these expenses.
Confidentiality and sharing information
Legislation protects information gained through committee activities.
Members can only share information in certain situations including:
- performing committee duties
- sharing with another quality assurance committee or a prescribed patient safety entity
- preventing serious harm by notifying a health professional’s chief executive
- reporting notifiable conduct to the health ombudsman
- complying with legal requirements under the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011.
Relevant persons can only share information if they're helping a committee with its duties or complying with legal requirements under the Hospital and Health Boards Act 2011.
Breaching legislation can result in fines of up to 100 penalty units.
Sharing information with a patient safety entity
A quality assurance committee can share a report or document it has prepared with a prescribed patient safety entity for an authorised purpose.
Protections apply to this type of disclosure. A person working for the patient safety entity must not:
- share the report or document with anyone else
- disclose information from the report or document, except for the authorised purpose
- use the report or document for anything other than the authorised purpose.
Breaching legislation can result in a penalty of up to 100 penalty units.
Sharing information between quality assurance committees
A quality assurance committee can share the following information they get from Queensland Health or private health services with another quality assurance committee.
- Root cause analysis reports
- Clinical incident reports
The information must be relevant to the other committee's work.
Committees can discuss these reports with another committee even if the other committee doesn't have copies of the reports.
Disclosure to prevent serious risk of harm
If a committee believes a health professional poses a serious risk of harm due to their health, conduct or performance it must act.
The committee must disclose the professional’s identity and the information supporting this belief to the professional’s chief executive. This allows the chief executive to take action and make a mandatory notification.
Deciding whether a risk is serious depends on the situation.
Reporting public risk notifiable conduct to the health ombudsman
Registered practitioners must tell the Office of the Health Ombudsman if they believe another practitioner has put the public at risk of substantial harm. This includes risk from:
- impairment affecting their ability to practise, like cognitive issues that affect correct diagnosis and treatment
- significant departure from accepted professional standards that puts the public at risk of substantial harm, like failures in diagnosis or treatment.
Reporting isn't required if the health practitioner safely manages a condition, like a blood-borne virus, while meeting guidelines and standards.