Absolutely. It is really important and helpful that you reached out to me as a few have been in touch. (Like us) the registrar had an exchange with another registrant and government on the exact same issue. We figured this same response could be shared with others. Here was his response which you can share below with her.
Here is what you could say:The NSRP is aware of this issue and has responded to another registrant on same, as well as having been in contact with Government contacts and others as noted below.
The Personal Health Information Act (PHIA) provides that the NS Health Authority is the Custodian of records. As such, they would be responsible for ultimately making decisions on such matters, but could delegate specific functions to employees who would act as “Agents”. If the Custodian is amenable to putting in place some type of mechanism to lock down the portion containing the raw data and testing material protocols that would be ideal; however, it may not be what they ultimately agree to, so we must consider the following clause from the Standards for Providers of Psychological Service in such a matter, along with the realities of PHIA:”Since the Nova Scotia Regulator of Psychology has the right to regulate psychology only, these Standards are to be understood to refer to psychological services and training (as opposed to services and training in other professions), even where the adjective “psychological” is not explicitly used, and psychological service units are not intended to interfere with the larger organizational structure in which they are embedded.”The NSRP recognizes that the reality of the NSHA being the custodian places psychologists in a challenging position with respect to standards where they conflict with the direction of the custodian. We have contacted our representatives with the NS Department of Health and Wellness to share these challenges and concerns. In response, we were advised that as an initial response, the first stage of this conversation should take place between the registrants and NSHA in the role of employer. This is recommended to ensure that the concerns have been fully and officially communicated to NSHA. You may find it helpful to share the above information with NSHA.
We are also consulting with other regulatory NSRPs across Canada to see if there are any other practices being followed that we could consider adapting. I have heard back from the Registrar in Alberta, and he indicated that Alberta Health Services has made specific arrangements to have test data access highly restricted and separate from the main clinical file. It would be nice if Nova Scotia Health would consider doing the same.
Registrar
