The preliminary relief judge has rejected the request of, among others, several ‘care providers/practitioners’ to temporarily stop the supply of patient data to the NZa.
Mental health care providers had to provide certain patient data to the NZa once before August 31, 2023. Some providers have not yet met this obligation because they have fundamental objections to it. Because of these objections, the action group Confidence in Mental Healthcare, which includes several psychiatrists, has initiated proceedings on the merits against the NZa. Pending the outcome, a number of parties asked the preliminary relief judge to temporarily suspend the obligation. The preliminary relief judge rejected this request, according to the ruling of November 1. The plaintiffs have made ‘insufficiently plausible’ ‘that the obligation to supply data and its processing is clearly in conflict with higher law and must therefore be discontinued’.
‘Disappointing’
The action group writes on its website that it finds the ruling ‘disappointing’, but that it has no influence on the ‘main issue’ that the group ‘looks forward with confidence’. The substantive proceedings are expected to take place within six months. One of the objections of the action group is that providing this data violates professional secrecy. The data that healthcare providers and practitioners must provide are the completed HoNOS+ questionnaires. This asks for sensitive and personal information, such as substance abuse. The fact that the NZa says it needs this data is related to a new funding structure for mental health care that will be introduced in 2022.
Traceability
The data provided is anonymized. As a result, the NZa cannot directly trace it back to the person, but it may be possible if they are linked to other databases that the NZa has. A ‘linking ban’ drawn up by the NZa should prevent this, according to the ruling of the preliminary relief judge.
