4th May 2007

The Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has released a new Information Sheet on Privacy and the Prescription Shopping Information Service (PSIS), available at http://www.privacy.gov.au/materials/types/infosheets/view/6551.

The Information Sheet is intended to provide private sector medical practitioners with an overview of their Privacy Act obligations, when collecting and handling patients' health information from the PSIS. The Information Sheet was developed in consultation with Medicare Australia and a number of other health and privacy stakeholders.

The PSIS is an initiative of Medicare Australia. It allows doctors to check if their patient may be receiving prescription medicines in excess of therapeutic need (also known as ''prescription shopping'). More information on the PSIS can be found here.

Ms Curtis said of the Information Sheet, "It is important that initiatives which involve individuals' health information, such as the PSIS, are used appropriately. For this to happen, practitioners need to be aware of their obligations to their patients under the Privacy Act."

"Promoting such awareness helps to avoid interferences with privacy, and can improve community confidence in the way their sensitive information may be handled," the Commissioner said.

As the Information Sheet explains, recent amendments to the Privacy Act and the National Health Act have changed the legal framework which allows collection from the PSIS. Collection may occur without consent only if the information is necessary to provide a health service to the individual.