A University of South Australia programme has been closed, and there are discussions about a potential class action following allegations by advocates that confidential information about veterans was shared without their permission. A recent development has led to the cancellation of the MATES programmeme, as it was discovered that the programmeme had been utilising identifiable data.
An ongoing initiative, spearheaded by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) since 2005, has utilised billing data from veterans’s healthcare cards to facilitate medical research. Last week, the department’s ethics committee withdrew its approval of the programme, causing a significant impact on veterans, according to RSL South Australia president Dave Petersen.
“I know of veterans today who will not go to the doctor, because they do not want their medical information to be sent to the University of South Australia,” Mr Petersen said.
“I have veterans who are reporting to me great distress that their privacy has been breached.”
Advocates have expressed their approval of the programme’s closure. According to former state veteran affairs minister Martin Hamilton-Smith, although the programme has been successful in saving lives, it would have been appropriate to obtain permission from those impacted.
“There’s always good outcomes, but there’s always unintended consequences,” Mr Hamilton-Smith said.
“And apart from privacy aspects to this, now this data’s been collected … is it going to be retained? Is it going to be destroyed? We just don’t know.”
The university is actively working to return the data to the department, according to a statement from a UniSA spokesperson.
“UniSA is committed to advancing the recognition of veterans’ health and wellbeing needs,” the spokesperson said.
“When UniSA became aware of questions raised with DVA about consent for the data it provides to the university, the university requested the suspension of the transmission of that data.
“UniSA is in the process of returning that data securely to DVA, as requested by the DVA Human Ethics Committee prior to the minister’s announcement of the program’s closure.”
Class action investigation unfolds
Gordon Legal, a legal firm that specialises in compensation, stated in a press release that the programme “”involved the mass disclosure of over two decades of identifiable data“.
“Gordon Legal… will investigate a potential class action against the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for breach of confidence arising from the unauthorised disclosure of the medical information, personal information and contact details of up to 300,000 service men, women and their families,” the statement said.
The law firm said it had filed a representative complaint with the Information Commissioner “on behalf of all those affected by the disclosures”.
“Recently, the DVA conceded that it misled the Information Commissioner about the extent of the disclosed information in an earlier investigation of the MATES Program,” the statement said.
Lawyer Seb O’Meara, who is leading the law firm’s investigation into the issue, said the firm would consider “avenues for compensation”.
“This matter highlights the crucial need for government bodies to be held accountable for protecting Australians’ sensitive information,” the lawyer said.
“Our investigation will look at legal options to protect the privacy of veterans and their families and attempt to rectify these injustices.”
Department halts data transfer six months ago
In a statement, the department said it stopped transferring data to UniSA last August to enable a “thorough examination of the existing arrangements”.
“DVA takes its obligations under the Privacy Act extremely seriously,” the statement said.
The department said it was important to note that “there has not been any unauthorised access of veteran data”.
“The data has not been made available publicly or for nefarious purposes,” the department said.
“DVA only ever provided client data for the purposes of MATES to a trusted organisation, the University of South Australia under strict data security and access policies.”
The department said it provided the data to UniSA “in accordance with the ethics approvals in place at the time”.
“This was done via a secure and carefully controlled channel. UniSA stored the data in a secure facility. Billing data was automatically de-identified before being accessed by researchers for the thematic review under the MATES program.”
The department stated that the data did not contain any doctor’s notes.
“Identifying data was only used to communicate with the veteran themselves, as well as their doctor, in the event that the analysis of the de-identified data revealed risks to the veteran’s health,” the department said.
“The letters that went to veterans and their doctors provided invaluable insights that supported those veterans receiving the most appropriate treatment possible.”
An external review was conducted last year into the administration of the opt-out procedures, according to the department.
“The review concluded all other such requests received by DVA to opt out of MATES had been properly implemented,” the department said.
It said any future program would be subject to new approval by its ethics committee.