92KDirection for medical examination

1. This section applies if a medical officer of health believes on reasonable grounds that—

2. an individual may have an infectious disease (for example, because the individual has been in contact with a person who has an infectious disease); and
3. the individual’s medical practitioner or a medical officer of health has requested the individual to undergo, within a specified period, a medical examination to establish whether the individual has the infectious disease; and
4. the individual has not undergone that examination within that period; and
5. if the individual has the infectious disease, the individual poses a public health risk.

6. The medical officer of health may direct the individual to undergo 1 or more medical examinations and may specify the places where those examinations are to be conducted and the health providers who are to conduct them.

7. The medical officer of health may also direct the individual, until those examinations are completed, to—

8. participate in any of the following that are conducted by a health provider:
   1. counselling:
   2. education:
   3. other activities related to the infectious disease:
9. refrain from carrying out specified activities (for example, undertaking employment, using public transport, or travelling within and outside New Zealand) either absolutely or unless stated conditions are observed:
10. refrain from going to specified places either absolutely or unless stated conditions are observed:
11. refrain from associating with specified persons or specified classes of persons:
12. take specified actions to prevent or minimise the public health risk posed by the individual:
13. stay, at all times or at specified times, at a specified place of residence, subject to specified conditions:
14. accept supervision by a named person or a person for the time being holding a named office, including, without limitation,—
    1. attending meetings arranged by that person; and
    2. providing that person with information on any action, occurrence, or plan that is relevant to the public health risk posed by the individual:
15. comply with instructions to prevent the spread of the infectious disease.

16. In no case may a direction require an individual to submit to compulsory treatment.

17. Subsection (6) applies if a direction requires an individual to refrain from carrying out a specified activity either absolutely or unless stated conditions are observed and a medical officer of health believes on reasonable grounds that the persons responsible for the activity need to be informed in order to prevent or minimise the public health risk posed by the individual.

18. The medical officer of health may contact any person who occupies a position of responsibility in relation to the activity and tell that person about 1 or more of the following matters:

19. the direction:
20. the public health risk posed by the individual’s engagement in the activity:
21. ways of minimising that public health risk.

22. Any medical examination an individual is directed to undergo must be—

23. in accordance with current best practice in diagnosing the presence of, or immunity to, the infectious disease; and
24. the least invasive type of examination that is necessary to establish whether the individual has, or is immune to, the infectious disease.

25. The medical officer of health must send to the Director-General a copy of every direction given under this section.

26. Despite anything in the Privacy Act 2020, if a person requires another person to provide information under this section,—

27. the person required to provide the information must comply with the requirement and be advised that the information must be provided for the effective management of infectious diseases; and
28. nothing in this section limits the right of an individual to access or disclose information about him or her under that Act or any other Act.