Compliance Review – Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service

This report details the findings of a review of Cairns and Hinterland Hospital and Health Service’s (CHHHS) compliance with the Right to Information Act 2009 (Qld) (RTI Act) and the Information Privacy Act 2009 (Qld) (IP Act). Overall, CHHHS is considered to be meeting its legislative obligations well. Key findings were that CHHHS:

  • had strong leadership and governance of right to information and information privacy
  • demonstrated a culture of openness, transparency and accountability
  • had a clearly articulated policy and good practice for community engagement, though there were opportunities to increase engagement with the community to identify and proactively release information that the community wants
  • had a website abundant in information for the community and good information on the staff intranet
  • had identified the need for, and taken steps to refine current arrangements for providing patients’ records through administrative access arrangements
  • complied with the legislative requirements for a publication scheme, disclosure log and for processing formal applications under the RTI and IP Acts, although speedier provision of healthcare decisions during application processing would lead to quicker responses to information requests; and
  • had good practices for managing closed circuit television in accordance with the privacy principles, which would be further supported by documenting policies and procedures.
Opportunities for improvement are discussed in greater detail throughout the report. Recommendations are made to assist CHHHS to take up these opportunities and to support completion of improvements that CHHHS is already undertaking.

Read the full report (PDF, 1190.66 KB)