Privacy Statement

We may update this privacy statement from time to time. Please check this privacy statement regularly for modifications and updates. This privacy statement was last updated on 21 February 2024. 

Involvement in the Scheme includes three key phases: Registration; Participation (if accepted); and Application(s) for Payment(s).

This privacy statement is for the portal administration of the registration and participation phases of the Voluntary Bonding Scheme (the Scheme) and does not include processes related to application for Scheme payments.

The Scheme is funded by Te Whatu Ora | Health New Zealand. The Scheme is a practical initiative run by Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) to encourage recently qualified health professionals to work in the communities and specialties that need them most, and to retain essential health professionals in Aotearoa New Zealand. It also aims to increase representation of Māori and Pacific peoples within the health workforce.

This Privacy Statement explains what personal information is collected if you are a Scheme registrant, where it's kept, and who can access it.  

Personal data of Scheme registrants will be collected for the purpose of contacting the registrant and verifying eligibility for the Scheme in the course of the registration and participation phases, e.g. name, address, phone number, DOB, ethnicity.    

No clinical data is captured.

No financially identifiable data is collected in the registration or participation phases of the Scheme. An additional or expanded Privacy Statement will be made available should the Registration platform be expanded to collect financially identifiable data, or if a Payment Application portal is created separately at a later date.   

Registrant data is only visible to Scheme administrators and advisors and the team leader, who are internal Te Whatu Ora Staff.

Registration for the Scheme is voluntary. 

To register for the Scheme, you are required to log in with or create a My Health Account or My Health Account Workforce account. While My Health Account and My Health Account Workforce do collect personally identifiable health information, the Scheme is only permitted to access specific attributes of registrants’ information. My Health Account will ask you to grant the Scheme permission to access these attributes.

The attributes the Scheme accesses are:

• Your level of identification – the Scheme uses this to verify that you are the right person
• Your email address – this enables the Scheme to communicate with you about the Scheme and the registration process

For more information, please visit the My Health Account Privacy Statement:

https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/our-health-system/digital-health/my-health-account/privacy-statement/

We may collect the following personal information from you for the purpose of the Scheme:

• Full name 
• Date of birth
• Gender 
• Ethnicity (optional)
• Phone number 
• Email address 
• Residential address, and postal address if different 
• New Zealand Permanent Residency or citizenship status
• Your Tertiary Education Provider(s) 
• Your Tertiary qualification(s) and completion status 
• Intended or current eligible profession, community, specialty, setting and/or employer
• Employment status
• Qualification or study completion date(s) 
• Professional registration number (e.g. Annual Practicing Certificate number)

This information is for the purpose of confirming that you are eligible to register for the Scheme.  

If you choose not to provide us with your personal information, then it is likely/possible your registration cannot be adequately completed and/or assessed to confirm eligibility and is likely to be declined.  

This information is held by Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand. 

The Scheme may also collect publicly available personal information about you regarding your qualification or study completion date(s) indirectly from ‘Responsible authorities’. Responsible authorities are bodies corporate legislated for by the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act (HPCAA) 2003 who regulate the health profession that you are registered or eligible to be registered to (for example the Nursing Council of New Zealand - Te Kaunihera Tapuhi o Aotearoa).

If we cannot obtain this information from a ‘Responsible authority’ publicly available source, we may contact you and ask you to obtain and supply this to us. We will not seek this independently. Failure to supply such information may result in your registration not being able to be adequately completed and/or assessed to confirm eligibility and it is likely to be declined.

We may also contact you and ask you to obtain and supply information related to your employment situation to us. We will not seek this independently. Failure to supply such information may result in your registration not being able to be adequately completed and/or assessed to confirm eligibility and is likely to be declined.

It is your choice whether to provide your personal information as part of the registration to the  Scheme. Please note that it is mandatory for registrants to access the Scheme through their My Health Account or My Health Account Workforce account because this is the registration platform and process that is being used by Te Whatu Ora for the Scheme.  

If you choose not to provide us with your personal information, then it is likely/possible your  registration cannot be adequately completed and/or assessed to confirm eligibility and is likely to be declined.

You can opt out from the registration process at any time.

You can also choose to stop sharing your My Health Account information with the Scheme within your My Health Account if you have previously given permission. The Scheme may retain any information you supplied while the permission was granted, but the Scheme will not be able to access your information in the future. 

Information that is provided is held by Te Whatu Ora | Health New Zealand. 

We may use personal information for the purposes of your registration, including: 

• Assessing and reviewing your Scheme registration
• Verifying and/or validating the information collected during the registration process. 
• To correspond with you.  
• To confirm with the relevant Responsible Authority under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act (HPCAA) 2003 regarding your qualification or study completion date(s). 

We may share your information with internal Te Whatu Ora staff for the purposes of assessing your registration. The information shared with internal Te Whatu Ora staff will not contain any personal identifying information. The Scheme will only disclose: 

• Your qualification and tertiary institution
• Your ethnicity
• Your answers to the questions related to your Intended or current eligible profession, community, specialty, setting and/or employer
• Any answers provided in questions related to exceptional circumstances that you wish to provide

Obligations under the Public Records Act 2005 will be met as per the following: Data will be created and maintained as per Section 17 of the Public Records Act 2005.  Data will be retained as per Section 18. The Scheme is working in partnership with the Te Whatu Ora Records Management Team to ensure metadata tagging is in place to ensure data is disposed of in accordance with Archives NZ General Disposal (GDA6). We only keep your personal information for as long as required for the purposes outlined in this privacy statement and in accordance with the law. 

Data is stored in Microsoft Dataverse within Te Whatu Ora Azure tenancy hosted in Microsoft Azure Data Centres in Sydney Australia. Documents collected and/or generated as part of the solution will be stored in Te Whatu Ora's SharePoint hosted in Microsoft Azure Data Centres in Sydney Australia. We take reasonable steps to ensure your personal information is protected against loss, unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure, or other misuse. Standard security safeguards are in place in conjunction with Te Whatu Ora’s information security standards.  

You have the right to access any information we hold about you and ask us to correct it if you think it is wrong. 

To access any personal information held by us, or if you wish to correct your information, please email vbs@health.govt.nz.

When making a request to access or change your information, please include:  

• your name
• your profession, and if applicable, your professional registration number 
• contact address (email or postal) 
• contact phone number 
• details of the information you want or want to correct - this needs to be as clear and specific as you can make it. We may ask you for more details. 

Please note that before we can provide you with your information or make any changes we need to be satisfied about your identity. To do so, we may need to ask you further questions or to view identification which establishes your identity. 

Requesting information on behalf of someone else 

If you are requesting information on behalf of someone else, you will need to provide their authorisation or other documentation to support that you have the right to do so. 

If you have any queries or concerns about how your personal information has been managed, please contact us to see if we can resolve the problem. You can: 

• Email us at hnzprivacy@health.govt.nz  
• Write to us at Privacy Officer - Te Whatu Ora, PO Box 793, Wellington 6140, New Zealand 

If you’re not satisfied with our response to your concerns, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. For more information see the  Office of the Privacy Commissioner website.

A Privacy Threshold Assessment was completed for the Scheme Registration and Participation Portal, and can be accessed on request.