Our practice is committed to best practice in relation to the management of information we collect. This practice has developed a policy to protect paTextVisualtient privacy in compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘the Privacy Act’). Our policy is to inform you of:

• the kinds of information that we collect and hold, which, as a medical practice, is likely to be ‘health information’ for the purposes of the Privacy Act;
• how we collect and hold personal information;
• the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information;
• how you may access your personal information and seek the correction of that information;
• how you may complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with such a complaint;
• whether we are likely to disclose personal information to overseas recipients;

The type of information we may collect and hold includes:

• Your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details
• Medicare number , DVA number and other government identifiers, although we will not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice
• Other health information about you, including:

• notes of your symptoms or diagnosis and the treatment given to you
• your specialist reports and test results
• your appointment and billing details
• your prescriptions and other pharmaceutical purchases
• your genetic information
• your healthcare identifierany other information about your race, sexuality or religion, when collected by a health service provider.

We will generally collect personal information:

• from you directly when you provide your details to us. This might be via a face to face discussion, telephone conversation, registration form or online form
• from a person responsible for you
• from third parties where the Privacy Act or other law allows it – this may include, but is not limited to: other members of your treating team, diagnostic centres, specialists, hospitals, the My Health Record system[1], electronic prescription services, Medicare, your health insurer, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

In general, we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

• to provide health services to you
• to communicate with you in relation to the health service being provided to you
• to comply with our legal obligations, including, but not limited to, mandatory notification of communicable diseases or mandatory reporting under applicable child protection legislation.
• to help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our systems
for consultations with other doctors and allied health professional involved in your healthcare;
• to obtain, analyse and discuss test results from diagnostic and pathology laboratories
• for identification and insurance claiming
• If you have a My Health Record, to upload your personal information to, and download your personal information from, the My Health Record system[1].
([1]See: https://myhealthrecord.gov.au/internet/mhr/publishing.nsf/content/home
Updated 14th June 2016)
• Information can also be disclosed through an electronic transfer of prescriptions service.
• To liaise with your health fund, government and regulatory bodies such as Medicare, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) (if you make a privacy complaint to the OAIC), as necessary.

You have a right to seek access to, and correction of the personal information which we hold about you. A fee may be charged for this. Check with our reception staff.
For details on how to access and correct your health record, please contact our practice as noted below under ‘Contact Details’:

We will normally respond to your request within 7 days.

Our staff are trained and required to respect and protect your privacy. We take reasonable steps to protect information held from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes:

• Password protection applies
• Access to personal information restricted on a ‘need to know’ basis
• Electronic transfer of health information is encrypted
• All staff and doctors have signed confidentiality agreements

If you have any questions about privacy-related issues or wish to complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles or the handling of your personal information by us, you may lodge your complaint in writing to (see below for details). We will normally respond to your request within 30 days.
If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may refer the matter to the OAIC:

Phone: 1300 363 992 Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Post: GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001 Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/how-do-i-make-a-privacy-complaint

We may disclose your personal information to the following overseas recipients:

• any practice or individual who assists us in providing services (such as where you have come from overseas and had your health record transferred from overseas or have

• treatment continuing from an overseas provider) anyone else to whom you authorise us to disclose it

This Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and other necessary developments. Updates will be publicised on the practice’s website.

Information collected through social media, apps or our website may be used in a number of ways:

• sending periodic emails with health promotion information
• emails or sms to request you make an appointment with your doctor
• emails or sms to reminder you of an appointment

You may unsubscribe at any time.

Contact our practice management team if you have any issues relating to our privacy policy. Email your concerns to either twhiting@qmsclinic.com.au or hdrummond@qmsclinic.com.au or telephone on 9233 4800.