Ambulance Victoria, the state’s emergency medical service provider, has reported a significant breach to the privacy watchdog after confidential drug and alcohol test results of graduate paramedics were accessible to all staff members.
Approximately 600 test results relating to a few hundred individuals were compromised, including about 30 positive test results. Ambulance Victoria’s CEO, Jane Miller, apologized for the breach and stated that the organization is contacting those affected.
The breach involved confidential spreadsheets containing information from pre-employment testing of graduate paramedics in 2017 and 2018. The private information included the full names of the paramedics, the date of testing, the test results (positive or negative), and the substances detected if the result was positive. The Victorian Ambulance Union alerted Ambulance Victoria to the problem after discovering the spreadsheets on the staff intranet.
The union has requested that Ambulance Victoria take immediate action, including contacting affected employees (both current and past), conducting an audit to identify who accessed the files, and suspending all alcohol and drug screenings until the issue is resolved.
They have also urged Ambulance Victoria to report the breach to the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner and other relevant authorities. The union plans to report the breach on behalf of its members and is considering potential legal action.
Ambulance Victoria is conducting an access audit to determine who viewed the records and investigating how the breach occurred. The organization attributes the breach to an inadvertent process issue but is uncertain how long the documents were available.
The breach spanned data captured between May 2017 and October 2018. Ambulance Victoria has taken swift action to remove the documents and has reported the incident to the relevant authorities, including the OVIC and Victorian health complaints commissioner.
