Privacy Policy

This policy is to inform and govern the manner in which our practice (the Clinic) collects, uses, and manages personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles as contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act).

This policy may be varied by the Clinic from time to time.

What is personal information?

Personal information means information or an opinion about an identified individual (or an individual who is reasonably identifiable), whether the information or opinion is true or not, and whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

Personal information can include sensitive information. Sensitive information means information or an opinion about health and related information, including about a person’s physical, mental health, general and specific conditions and illnesses, safety and personal management issues, and a person’s race, ethnic origin, political opinions, membership of political associations and trade associations, religious or philosophical beliefs, sexual orientation or practices, criminal record, genetic information about an individual that is not otherwise health information, biometric information that is used for the purpose of automated biometric verification or biometric identification and biometric templates.

Due to the nature of the services that the Clinic provides, the personal information which may be collected, used, and managed by the Clinic, may include sensitive information.

What kinds of personal information are collected and held by the Clinic?

Examples of the kinds of personal information that may be collected by the Clinic include:

a person’s name;
a person’s residential address, postal address, email address, telephone number, and other contact details;
a person’s employer and/or place of business;
patient health and medical information, physical and mental including emergency contact(s); and
surveillance and security footage and material.

The Clinic does not use any government related identifiers, such as Medicare numbers, as its own identifier of any individual. The Clinic will not use or disclose any government related identifiers other than in accordance with the Act.

How does the Clinic collect and hold personal information?

The Clinic collects personal information:

from individuals directly (including patients);
from health care professionals and service providers in the course of them providing health services;
from its suppliers and contractors; and
through CCTV cameras and other security technologies.

If you provide us with sensitive information about other individuals, such as health information, please ensure that the individual or the individual’s representative is aware of the disclosure and that he or she consents to the disclosure to the Clinic as well as to the handling of their personal information in accordance with this policy.

How does the Clinic deal with personal information?

The Clinic may collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for the following purposes:

to provide health services;
to respond to requests and inquiries;
to contact individuals, via email, telephone or otherwise;
to provide you with information that we believe may be of interest to you;
direct marketing and business development;
to develop and improve programs, products, services and content;
to protect the Clinic’s rights and property;
for security and occupational health and safety purposes;
to investigate or report suspected unlawful activity;
to protect someone’s life, health, safety or welfare;
to comply with a law or regulation, or a court order or other legal process.

The Clinic never uses patients’ health information or any other sensitive information for direct marketing purposes.

Disclosure to other parties

The Clinic may disclose personal information to:

related entities of the Clinic;
contractors we use to support our business (including IT support and other IT services, laboratory services, delivery services and financial institutions);
our suppliers;
our lawyers, accountants and other business advisers;
health care professionals and health service providers;
government health agencies such as Medicare;
private health care insurers and providers;
law enforcement officers, regulators, courts and government agencies – if required by law or regulation, court order or other legal process, or in order to protect the Clinic’s rights, property, or if necessary to prevent a threat to any person’s life, health or safety.

The Clinic will not sell or exchange your personal information except in conjunction with a corporate sale, merger, dissolution, acquisition or other similar event.

Data integrity and security

The Clinic takes reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information that it collects, uses and discloses is accurate, up-to-date and complete. We encourage individuals to assist us with this by contacting us if you are aware that any of your personal information is not accurate, up-to-date or complete.

The Clinic takes reasonable steps to protect personal information it holds from misuse, interference and loss, as well as unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.

The Clinic’s data is securely stored in Australia and is not stored or transferred outside of Australia.

When Clinic no longer needs personal information for any purpose for which the information may be used or disclosed under the Australian Privacy Principles, we take reasonable steps to destroy the information or ensure that it is de-identified, except if the information is part of a Commonwealth record or the Clinic is required by law or a court or tribunal order to retain the personal information.

Access and correction

Individuals have a right to request access to their personal information and to request its correction. To do so, please contact our practice using the contact form found on this website.

The Clinic does not impose a charge for making a request for access, however we may charge for reasonable administrative costs incurred in providing access.

The Clinic encourages individuals to advise us if your personal information requires correction or updating. The Clinic does not impose any charge with respect to requests for correction or updates.

Before correcting or providing access to personal information in response to a request, the Clinic will require your identity to be confirmed.

Requests for access or correction may be refused upon the grounds contained in the Act. If we refuse to provide access, or to correct personal information, the Clinic will provide you with reasons for the refusal.

Complaints

A person who wishes to complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles by the Clinic should contact us through the contact form on this website.

The Clinic will not impose any charge for making a complaint, or for dealing with the complaint. Once a complaint has been lodged, our Privacy Officer will acknowledge its receipt to you as soon as possible.

We will do our best to ensure that our investigation is completed, and a decision on your complaint is communicated to you, within 30 days from our receipt of the complaint. We will contact you if we need more time.

You may also contact the Australian Information Commissioner:

Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
SYDNEY NSW 2001
Telephone: 1300 363 992
Fax: 02 9284 9666
Website: www.oaic.gov.au