Privacy Policy

This privacy policy is to provide information to you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.

Definition of a Patient Health Record

A patient's health record is information that has been collected for the purpose of being able to assess, diagnose and treat. It contains personal details and a full medical history that is stored securely with the intention of protecting patient privacy.

Why and when is your consent necessary?

When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our GPs and practice staff to access and use your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible healthcare. Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will seek additional consent from you to do this.

Why do we collect, use, hold and share your personal information?

Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide healthcare services to you. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to manage your health. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (e.g. staff training).

What personal information do we collect?

The information we will collect about you includes your:

names, date of birth, addresses, contact details
medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors
Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes
healthcare identifiers
health fund details

When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?

We sometimes share your personal information:

with other healthcare providers
when it is required or authorised by law (e.g. court subpoenas)
when it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, or it is impractical to obtain the patient’s consent
to assist in locating a missing person
to establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim
for the purpose of a confidential dispute resolution process
when there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (e.g. some diseases require mandatory notification)
during the course of providing medical services, through My Health Record (e.g. via Shared Health Summary, Event Summary) with your prior agreement.

Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing medical services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

All personal information at our practice is stored electronically in our software, and all staff members of our practice have individual access levels, which are password-protected.

All authorised practice staff and doctors have signed confidentiality agreements upon commencement at the clinic.

All Information of our practice is stored on our practice server, which is backed up daily by our IT company, so that it cannot be lost.