When you access Southern DHB services (eg Southland Hospital, Lakes District Hospital, Mental Health Services), you will be asked to provide us with information about yourself. This information may include details about illnesses, injuries, symptoms, background personal information and information about services that you have received from other health care providers.
This information is needed:
- to give you the best possible care and treatment
- for administration and planning purposes
- to monitor quality standards
- to assist in staff training and education
- to provide the Ministry of Health with health statistics for planning and funding purposes
Your information will only be used for these purposes.
Who do we share your health information with?
Confirmation of the Ward you are in and a very general statement about your condition, is provided by staff in response to a phone or counter inquiry, unless you request otherwise. If you wish to restrict the information made available - including the fact you are in hospital -please inform your nurse at any time.
It is the normal practice for us to share necessary and relevant information about you with caregivers, your General Practitioner (GP) and other health professionals. We comply with the Ministry of Health in providing non-identifiable information about your admission. This information is used to analyse funding of hospital services or quality improvement, as two example. It you were admitted to another Public Hospital, they can access your details to ensure they have a complete health history, unless you indicate to your nurse, you want your admission details suppressed.
At any stage if you would like access to your Medical Record, or would like to know more about the collection, storage and use of your personal information, please contact Southern DHB's Privacy Officer on +64 3 218 1949.
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HOW YOUR PRIVACY IS PROTECTED AND RESPECTED
Under the Health Information Privacy Code of Practice, we will take the following steps to ensure that your privacy is both respected and protected:
1. We will make sure that any information that is collected, is necessary for the reasons described above (on this web page).
2. We will only collect information we require directly from you as the patient/customer or from a designated person whom you have given permission, to give this information to us.
3. We will make every endeavour to be sensitive when asking for information and how we ask for it, so that we reduce the potential for any encroachment into your personal affairs.
4. We will take every opportunity to ensure that the information we collect is looked after, not lost, altered or made available to anyone other than the Southern DHB staff who are caring for you.
5. You are able to access your notes on request. There may be times when this request cannot happen quickly as your notes may be being used by one of your carers.
6. If you are aware of information that we have about you that is incorrect, please let us know so that we can alter it. It is your right to have your statement about what is correct, attached to your notes.
7. There may be times that it will appear that you are being asked the same questions repeatedly. Often this is the case, but we must ensure that we have the correct information about you before we use it and this will avoid misunderstandings and/or mistakes. We strive to keep your records updated with each contact (eg. a change in your address or personal situation).
8. The information we collect about you is often made available to other health practitioners (eg. your GP) and to those with legal entitlement. If you have any concerns, please discuss them with a staff member.
9. When you come into contact with our services, you are automatically given a National Health Index (NHI) number. Health providers throughout New Zealand will use this same number which is unique to you. This number is essential to ensure that there is no confusion about treating people with similar names and the number can be used for administration purposes without directly identifying you.
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