Pursuant to section 54(5) of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 (“Act”), this notice sets out requirements relating to the form, content and quality standards of an application to have a Quality Assurance Activity (“QAA”) protected.

Introduction

Sections 52 to 63 of the Act provide for the confidentiality of information collected as part of a protected quality assurance process in relation to health practitioners registered under that Act. It is based on the underlying principle that there is benefit to the public from Quality Assurance Activities (“QAAs”) in relation to health services provided by those practitioners. There are benefits to the public through improvements in the competence and practice of health practitioners whether by QAAs or otherwise.

Section 53 of the Act defines a QAA as an activity that is undertaken to improve the practices or competence of one or more health practitioners by assessing the health services performed by those health practitioners (whenever those services are or were performed); and includes the following acts done in the course of, or as a result of, that activity:

1. The whole or part of any assessment or evaluation;
2. the whole or part of a study of the incidence or causes of conditions or circumstances that may affect the quality of health services performed by one or more of those health practitioners;
3. any preparation for that assessment, evaluation, or study;
4. making recommendations about the performance of those services; and
5. monitoring the implementation of those recommendations.

The application form to have a QAA declared “protected” is set out below.

Application for a Protected Quality Assurance Activity (“PQAA”)

Notice Under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003

A PQAA is an activity undertaken to improve the practices and competence of health practitioners by assessing the health services provided by them (e.g. clinical audits of the outcomes of treatment). PQAAs are conferred by the Minister of Health, in line with the Health Practitioners Competence Act 2003 (“Act”).

The purpose of a PQAA is to encourage effective quality assurance activities in relation to health services performed by health practitioners.

Please Note: A PQAA only protects information that exists as a result of the quality assurance activity. Information that exists prior to the activity being conducted cannot be protected.

This application should provide sufficient information to assess whether the proposed QAA should be declared a PQAA. Please refer to the guidance to apply for a PQAA on the Ministry of Health website before completing this application.

If you wish to apply for protection for multiple activities, please submit activities separately.

Any queries or completed applications should be sent to QAA@health.govt.nz.

1. What is the title of the QAA?

Please provide a short title for your QAA to be identified by (e.g. Clinical Audit).

2. Please describe the purposes of the QAA and how it improves the practice of 1 or more practitioners as described in section 53(1) of the Act:

Quality assurance activity – means an activity that is undertaken to improve the practices of 1 or more health practitioners by assessing the health services performed by those health practitioners (whenever those services are or were performed).

3. Who are the participants?

Please clearly identify the groups or memberships who are participating in this activity. For example ‘All New Zealand Orthopaedic surgeons who carry out reconstruction surgery’. If there are multiple groups of professionals involved in the activity, please list them all. All participants should support the application for a protected quality assurance notice.

4. Describe the methodology or how the activity will be carried out:

Provide a clear description of the QAA process from beginning to end. This description will inform how the Notice is written and published if conferred by the Minister of Health.

5. What actions will be taken if the QAA identifies a problem or deficiency in the provision of health services by the health practitioners?

Describe the mechanisms for providing feedback and advice to the health practitioners and how it is intended to effect any changes or to introduce new processes or procedures designed to improve the provision of the relevant health services.

6. What information do you intend the notice to protect?

A PQAA only protects information that exists as a result of the quality assurance activity. Information that exists prior to the activity being conducted cannot be protected. Please describe the information you intend the notice to protect.

7. Why is it in the public interest that the activity is protected?

The Minister of Health may not declare a QAA protected unless they are satisfied that it is in the public interest that the protection conferred by the provisions of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 should apply in respect of that activity.

Please confirm you have included the following information in this application to support the proposed QAA:

8. Who is the activity’s sponsor?

A sponsor could, for example, be a department, a specialty group, a Government body, a licensed hospital, a body that provides health care, an educational institution, a research body or a health practitioner college.

9. What are the sponsor’s contact details?

Please provide the preferred contact details for all matters related to the QAA. This may be an organisation administrator, or the person submitting the application. You may provide multiple points of contact.

Name:

Email:

Signature of Applicant/Sponsor:

Name of Applicant/Sponsor:

Date:

Responsible Person

All Protected Quality Assurance Notices (PQAA) must have a nominated responsible person in line with section 57 of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. A responsible person must be nominated by the sponsor of the PQAA and appointed by the Minister of Health.

The responsible person needs to be able to take responsibility for the integrity and maintenance of the QAA’s methodology and to provide independent or objective commentary to meet the reporting requirements. Reporting requirements can be found in appendix 1.

Name:

Contact:

Please describe the person’s role within the organisation:

Does the responsible person have any association with the health practitioners whose performance is being assessed?

(The Act requires the responsible person is independent of the health practitioners whose services are being assessed or evaluated through the QAA.)

Yes / No

Please confirm if the responsible person has been subject to a criminal convictions check in the past 3 years:

Yes / No

Note:

The duration of a protected QAA notice may be no longer than five years. If there is a change in the nature of the activity, an amendment to the notice may be required. The Ministry of Health should be consulted.

Every notice declaring a QAA protected is deemed to be a Regulation. This means that each notice is subject to a measure of Parliamentary scrutiny and control of the process. This includes potential scrutiny by Parliament’s Regulations Review Committee. Each notice will be published in the Statutory Regulation series. The notice is a legal document.

Undertakings and Declaration by the Responsible Person

The following declaration and undertakings must be completed by the nominated responsible person. You can find more details about these undertakings in the Act and guidance on our webstie https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/regulation-health-and-disability-system/health-practitioners-competence-assurance-act/quality-assurance-activities-under-act/application-declaration-protected-quality-assurance-activities.

Declaration

Signature of Responsible Person:

Name of Responsible Person:

Date:

Responsible Persons’ Reporting Requirements

Section 58(1) and (3) of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 reads as follows:

58. Reporting requirements:

1. Within two months after the expiry of each period of 12 months (the reporting period) that follows the date of a notice under section 54 declaring a QAA to be protected, the person for the time being appointed to be responsible for the activity must give each provider of health services (the provider) who has, or whose employees or agents have, been assessed in the reporting period through the activity a report relating
to the reporting period that sets out information on the following matters:

1. any problems or issues concerning the operations of the provider that have been identified in the course of the activity;
2. any action that has been taken, as a result of the activity, to resolve or address the problems or issues stated under paragraph (a);
3. any recommendations that have been, or are to be, made to the provider as a result of the activity;
4. the manner in which the implementation of the recommendations stated under paragraph (c) is to be monitored; and
5. the manner in which improvements in the competence or practice of the provider or any of the agents or employees of the provider are to be monitored.

…

3. A report given under (this section) may not identify, either expressly or by implication, a particular individual.