Reporting in Australia:

Reporting incidents into EMER or participating in the EMER project, are activities protected by the Australian Government's Commonwealth Qualified Privilege Scheme, with EMER currently covered as a qualified privilege activity until January 2031.

Qualified Privilege is a legal provision that aims to improve patient safety and the quality of health care by promoting and encouraging health professionals to participate in quality reporting activities. It encourages a culture of learning from clinical incidents and adverse events by protecting those taking part in the activities from civil liability and legal action.

This scheme also allows health professionals to participate in incident reporting activities without the risk of their information (such as the involvement in undesirable clinical outcomes) being made public, helping to protect their professional reputation.

More information is available from:

• Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Qualified Privilege Scheme, Qualified Privilege Scheme

Reporting in Aotearoa New Zealand:

EMER has been approved as a Protected Quality Assurance Activity by the New Zealand Ministry of Health until March 2031, however please note that ONLY the information created solely for the purpose of a PQAA can be protected - meaning that the event itself and the reporting thereof is not protected. Only the discussions and outputs from analysis of events entered into EMER are protected.

As only de-identified data is requested and incidents of greater than 5 are analysed and reported on in the aggregate, the reputational risk to health professionals submitting incident reports is minimal.

More information is available from:

• Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003