Four health IT companies have written to the Privacy Commissioner expressing concern that as many as 800,000 Aucklanders have had their privacy breached.
HealthLink, Medtech Global, my Practice and Best Practice Software New Zealand say the potential privacy breach involves medical records being stored in a large electronic database.
Almost a month ago, they became aware that primary health provider ProCare was extracting the private information of their patients.
The patient details included name, age, address and financial information.
HealthLink chief executive Tom Bowden told Newshub it is a clear breach of the patients' privacy, and could jeopardise patient trust in GPs.
However ProCare says it consulted with the Privacy Commissioner about its data collection, and patients' consent to their details being included.
ProCare spokesperson Clinical Director Dr Allan Moffitt says the health provider only extracts information consented to by patients and practices. This includes financial and identifiable information.
ProCare takes patient care very seriously and has robust frameworks and processes to ensure all legislative obligations are met, dr Moffitt says.
Newshub.
