For Immediate Release
7 November, 2022
The NL NDP Leader remains concerned that there will be no substantial changes proposed to the new Provincial Health Authority Act that will protect personal health information from political interference. This evening, the legislature is set to debate the Provincial Health Authority Act. After two hastily called legislative briefings this morning, the Liberal government has failed to justify why a Minister of Health requires the power to override the decision of a panel of ethics experts.
“We have been given no confidence that this bill goes far enough to protect the people of this province from political interference as it relates to the release of private healthcare information,” said Dinn. “We have been given no justification for continuing this overreach of the Minister’s authority. Had the Liberal government done their due diligence, this oversight would have been exposed by the Information and Privacy Commissioner before the Bill was presented and could have been rectified,” Dinn said.
Under the proposed legislation, if the Minister of Health does not agree with a panel of experts on disclosure, the Minister can direct the release of personal healthcare information of people in this province.
“What we can’t understand is why after having the weakness of the act explained to them, what reasoning the government has for refusing to pull the bill from the floor and build better legislation that would have better protected health information from political interference.”
NL NDP MHAs will be in the legislature tonight in debate to hold government to account and have this overreach of power given to the Minister of Health addressed.
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For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca