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.
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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.
