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Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

Miscellaneous provisions - Administration - Information sharing

199: Requirement of medical officer of health to notify regulator of work-related notifiable disease or hazardous substances injury

You could also call this:

“Doctors must report work-related illnesses and injuries to workplace safety regulators”

If you’re a doctor of health and you get told about a disease that people have to report, and you think it’s because of someone’s job, you need to tell the people who look after workplace safety. You also need to do this if you hear about someone getting hurt by dangerous substances at work.

When you tell the workplace safety people, you need to do it as soon as you can. You have to give them the name of the person who got sick or hurt, and what kind of sickness or injury they have.

You need to follow the rules about keeping people’s information private when you do this. There’s a special law called the Privacy Act 2020 that tells you how to do this properly.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM5977194.

Topics:
Work and jobs > Worker rights
Work and jobs > Workplace safety
Health and wellbeing > Public health
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Part 5 Miscellaneous provisions
Administration: Information sharing

199Requirement of medical officer of health to notify regulator of work-related notifiable disease or hazardous substances injury

  1. This section applies if a medical officer of health receives—

  2. a notification under section 74 of the Health Act 1956 of a notifiable disease that he or she reasonably believes arises from work:
    1. a notification under section 143 of the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act 1996 of an injury caused by a hazardous substance that he or she reasonably believes arises from work.

      1. The medical officer of health must, as soon as practicable after receiving the notification,—

      2. advise the regulator of the notification; and
        1. provide the regulator with the following information:
          1. the name of the person who suffers or suffered from the notifiable disease or injury caused by the hazardous substance; and
            1. the nature of the disease or injury.

            2. Except as required by subsection (2)(b), the medical officer of health must comply with the Privacy Act 2020 and any relevant code of practice issued under that Act.

            Notes
            • Section 199(3): amended, on , by section 217 of the Privacy Act 2020 (2020 No 31).