Rail workers are not required to give permission for rail medical officers to access medical records held by their private practitioners, which means the rail medical officers would not necessarily have access to all relevant medical information in order to determine their fitness for safety-critical duties.
The Commission recommends that the Chief Executive of KiwiRail introduce a system whereby KiwiRail medical professionals are automatically granted access to employees' medical records held by private medical practitioners as necessary to ensure employees who perform safety-critical roles are not impaired by prescription or over-counter medications.