Select Page

Incident: Drug and alcohol tests of graduate paramedics revealed in Ambulance Victoria data breach | The Guardian

Incident: Drug and alcohol tests of graduate paramedics revealed in Ambulance Victoria data breach | The Guardian

Australian Medical Data Handling Incident, 12 May 2023

Drug and alcohol tests of graduate paramedics revealed in Ambulance Victoria data breach

The documents had become accessible to all employees on Ambulance Victoria’s internal intranet.

Source: Incident: Drug and alcohol tests of graduate paramedics revealed in Ambulance Victoria data breach | The Guardian

View more incidents from Medical and Health Care sector and other reports from Victoria.

YouTube player

 

The confidential drug and alcohol test results of graduate paramedics were available for every Ambulance Victoria staff member to view under a significant breach that has been reported to the state’s privacy watchdog.

The Ambulance Victoria chief executive, Jane Miller, confirmed on Friday afternoon that the “unacceptable” breach involved 600 test results relating to a “few hundred” people, and offered her unreserved apology to those impacted.

According to an email sent late Thursday to members of the Victorian Ambulance Union, and first reported by the Guardian, confidential spreadsheets relating to pre-employment testing of graduate paramedics in 2017 and 2018 were available on the staff intranet until the union alerted Ambulance Victoria to the problem.

“Since becoming aware, AV has removed access to these documents and has undertaken an access audit of these documents,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

“The documents were not directly accessible to anyone outside of the organisation.”

AV’s Jane Miller said an investigation had been launched, but as of Friday the organisation was unsure how long the records had been accessible or how the breach occurred.

 


About The Author

Steven Kirby

I provide independent and practical consultancy services through raising awareness and fostering the energy for change that delivers improved business management of information security governance, risk and compliance.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

More Australian News

Weekly Australian News and Monthly Incident Review Emails

No advertisements, marketing, sales, or unsolicited emails. Your email address is ONLY used to send the publications listed above.

* indicates required


Shares
Share This