Part 7 of the South Australian Health Care Act 2008 (the Act) provides for the declaration of activities to be authorised quality improvement activities or authorised research activities and for persons or groups of persons (committees) to be authorised entities for the purpose of carrying out such activities. As detailed in Part 7 s63 (2) of the Act this involves:
Only authorised Part 7 committee members can attend the committee meeting and any information that could be used to identify the patient or service provider cannot be disclosed to anyone who is not a Part 7 committee member. Under the Act, committees must be established in accordance with the rules of the governing body of the prescribed health sector body and members must hold relevant qualifications. Any data or information exchanged, discussed and/or documented is confidential to only those authorised groups or persons, this exempts information being obtainable by Freedom of Information or a court of law.
Protecting the confidentiality of information generated through Part 7 committees encourages open communication in assessing the management, processes, and outcomes of the provision of health services.
As detailed in Part 7 s63 (1) of the Act, confidential information means:
The Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) Act 2010 states that members of quality assurance committees cannot disclose information because Part 7 of the Health Care Act prohibits such disclosure. Refer to Schedule 2, Part 8, Division 2 of this legislation for further details.
If any provision in any Act or law is inconsistent with the requirements of Part 7 of the Act, the requirements of Part 7 must be followed.
Committees seeking authorisation in accordance with Section 64 of the Act must demonstrate that they are conducting either quality improvement or research activities and provide information that defines the role and responsibilities of the committee in relation to these activities.
Applicants must submit the following documents to SA Health’s Clinical Governance Unit:
If an authorised Part 7 committee requires re-authorisation for a further three years, they will need to submit their application documents three months prior to the expiry of the declaration.
If an authorised committee has a sub-committee that views protected information, the sub-committee must be separately authorised to allow them to view the Part 7 committee information.
The Clinical Governance Unit will assess the application and liaise with the applicant to ensure that the application meets the requirements of the Act. When the application meets these requirements, the Clinical Governance Unit will submit a re-authorisation request to the Minister’s Office.
If the application is accepted by the Minister for Health and Wellbeing, the Part 7 committee will be authorised by publishing a Notice in the Government Gazette.
Following publication in the Government Gazette, the Clinical Governance Unit will email the applicant with a copy of the Gazette and the applicant’s documents that were used for the gazetting.
An authorisation made under the Act has effect for three years from the date the notice appears in the Gazette, unless the Minister places a notice in the Gazette revoking the authorisation at an earlier date.
For further information and assistance, or to provide feedback to enable continuous improvement, email Health.DHWClinicalGovernanceEnquiries@sa.gov.au
For any advice regarding Part 7 authorisation not able to be sourced from the Safety and Quality Team email HealthLegalRequests@sa.gov.au