Call for hospital boards to be covered by act

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 23

Call for hospital boards to be covered by act

PA Wellington The Nurses’ Society wants hospital boards placed on the list of organisations covered by the Official Information Act

A Government review of the organisations covered has been made and a bill making changes will probably go before the House later this year. It is believed hospital boards are included on the review list of bodies to be covered by the act. The society’s director, Mr David Wills, said there was no reason patients should not have legal right of access to their health records. Access now varies between boards subject to different policies and the discretion of staff concerned.

"As a matter of principle patients should have access to information

about themselves and no amount of paternalism should stand in their way,” he said.

If the act applied to hospital boards, it would not only give patients a legal right of access to their health records but would give staff access to their files and, in general, allow better public access to information about the running of the health service.

Open records could help patients understand their treatment and give an opportunity to correct errors, he said. Potential problems with jargon and misinterpretation could be avoided by ensuring that patients viewing their records had a health professional ayailable for clarification.

Mr Wills said his society had been involved in several cases where the lack of access to staff files

had caused problems. There were times where records might be in error as well as cases where staff members feared they had not had an op- ■■■■ portunity to challenge un- . favourable reports. Most hospital boards ran in a fairly open manner and made information 1;: available on request, , he said.

“But a minority are not u ,' as open or as co-operative as they could or should < u be.”

The chief executive of the Wellington Hospital ■ Board said there would be., some difficulties in pro- r" viding records in all cases.

“For instance, with re- referees* reports which are normally provided in con- I fidence. If staff are en- . titled to see these, we are at the end of getting full and frank reports,” Mr - Rennie said.