Access Request Forms

What is an Access Request?

An access request review, instead of site specific assessment, should be completed for all human research projects that require support from a NSW Public Health Organisation in the form of access to participants, tissue or data but do not involve the conduct of research at that Public Health Organisation.

For example, access request review should be used if the project involves one or more of the following activities at the Public Health Organisation:

Participant recruitment through posters, leaflets, handouts and letter of invitation but not recruitment through direct contact with potential participants or enrolment;
Distribution of surveys and questionnaires through staff of the Public Health Organisation but not collation and analysis of responses at that Public Health Organisation; and
Access to data or tissue held at the Public Health Organisation but not processing or analysis at that Public Health Organisation.

The Access Request pathway is outlined as per Ministry of Health guidelines: NSW Health & Medical Research | Site authorisation and access request and PD2010_056.

OHMR Access Request Decision Tree

The Research Governance Officer has the discretion to request that the application is submitted for site specific assessment if they consider that the project involves the conduct of research at a site.

Access Request Submission to SWSLHD HREC

(The Access Request process at SWSLHD has been updated as of 30.01.2026)

Please submit the following documents for access request application for SWSLHD sites to SWSLHD-ethics@health.nsw.gov.au

OHMR Access Request form available from: https://www.medicalresearch.nsw.gov.au/site-authorisation-access-request/
SWSLHD Access Request Additional Information form, downloaded from here.
HREC approval letter and all amendment approval letters.
Approved Human Research Ethics Application (HREA), Protocol and Master versions of documents being used/displayed in SWSLHD.
Document/s to be displayed in SWSLHD sites should be amended to include the following site specific details (attach the tracked and clean version for review):

A site specific version number/date must be included in addition to the master version number/date. There should be two version numbers/dates, e.g.
Liverpool Hospital, Version 1.0, 10 January 2025
MASTER Version 1.0, 8 January 2025
South Western Sydney Local Health District logo must be used. This is available on request by return email.

Email or signed letter from SWSLHD Head of Department involved providing support for the project.