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Delivering a Healthy WA
Office of Safety and Quality in Healthcare
To promote customer focused, safe, quality health care in Western Australia

Conducting quality improvement activities with no qualified privilege

The Department of Health Legal and Legislative Services branch should be consulted for guidance on undertaking an investigation without QP.

When to conduct quality improvement activities with no protection from qualified privilege:

  • If de-identified, aggregated data is to be discussed and shared
  • If there is no fear of litigation
  • If the committee or activity is functioning well without it

Advantages of conducting quality improvement activities with no protection from qualified privilege:

  • Any aggregated, de-identified information generated by the activity or committee is not protected and may be shared widely (e.g. with other health care professionals, institutions and the public).
  • Identified information generated by the activity or the committee may be shared with the patient and with their permission, their family or carer as per the Department of Health’s Open Disclosure Policy.

Disadvantages of conducting quality improvement activities with no protection from qualified privilege:

  • All documents generated via the quality improvement activity or committee may not be protected and may be available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act 1992 (WA) or by discovery in legal proceedings.
  • Members of the quality improvement committee or participants of the quality improvement activity may not be protected from being compelled to appear before a civil proceeding to provide evidence regarding information acquired by the committee.