Healthcare workers caught up in AHPRA privacy breach

Australia’s health regulator has apologised after it shared the private email addresses of healthcare professionals invited to attend a webinar focusing on the experiences of practitioners who have notifications related to alcohol or substance misuse.
 
In an email sent on 29 July and obtained by the ABC, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) invited dozens of medical professionals to attend the ‘Addiction and recovery: process, support and experiencing a health notification’ webinar via Zoom.
 
Despite stating those attending would be anonymous, AHPRA confirmed it shared the email addresses with other attendees.
 
‘AHPRA has apologised for an error made during the scheduling of a webinar that resulted in private email addresses being shared with other invitees,’ a spokesperson told newsGP.
 
They said AHPRA then took ‘immediate steps’ to respond to the privacy breach as soon as it was detected.
 
‘This included alerting those affected, requesting deletion of the email, apologising to them directly and providing information on how to raise a formal complaint with AHPRA or the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman,’ they said.
 
‘These steps were taken on the same day as the error was made.
 
‘AHPRA also notified the National Health Practitioner Ombudsman and continues to support those who have concerns.’
 
Not all recipients of the AHPRA invite had an addiction or impairment notification, according to the ABC.
 
It comes after AHPRA’s own invite email said ‘if you’re concerned about privacy, you’re welcome to join the webinar using another name or email address. Your name will not be visible to other participants or to AHPRA during the webinar’.
 
‘All participants will be able to type anonymous questions during the webinar. We ask that questions avoid sharing information that could identify a notification or person. Your camera and microphone will be turned off,’ it said.

The error led to swift backlash.
 
‘I’m very concerned and confused about this email chain. Breach needs to be addressed and resolved thank you,’ one person reportedly said.
 
‘My complaint will be forthcoming … depleted and drained,’ said another.
 
The webinar was scheduled for 26 August as part of a series of sessions aimed at supporting practitioners with their registration.
 
Invitees were told they would hear from a health practitioner talking about their experience with addiction and a health notification.
 
AHPRA said it remains committed to ‘engaging with stakeholders and the wider community’.
 
‘This includes through webinars featuring subject matter experts or people with lived experience of issues relevant to AHPRA’s regulation of almost one million health practitioners,’ the spokesperson said.
 
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AHPRA Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency