Privacy Policy
Consistent with our commitment to quality care, this practice has developed a policy to protect patient privacy in compliance with privacy legislation. Our primary concern is the health care of our patients.
| 1. | Collection of Personal Information: At this practice, we collect personal information from our patients for the purpose of providing healthcare services. The provision of these services includes the obtaining of pathology, radiology and other related services. |
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| 2. | Use & Disclosure of Personal Information: The confidentiality of personal information held at this practice has always been of paramount concern. Our staff are all aware of the importance of patient confidentiality. We will only use or disclose the personal information of our patients for the purpose of providing health services, for limited related purposes, or where required by law. Doctors in this practice are members of medical defence organisations and may need to disclose some personal information to these organisations from time to time. In other situations, we would not disclose your personal information without obtaining your consent. |
| 3. | Quality of Personal Information: We will endeavour to ensure that all personal information collected by this practice is accurate, complete and correct. |
| 4. | Access and Correction of Personal Information: If you wish to access your personal information held at this practice, please collect and complete a copy of the request for access form available at our reception, should access be denied, a reason for this denial will be provided to you, if you require a copy of your personal information, a nominal fee may be payable. This information is to be collected in person with photo proof of identification, i.e. Drivers license. |
| 5. | Security of Personal Information: To ensure the security of personal information held in this practice, all records are held on our computer system, where daily back-ups are performed. Information stored on our computer is password protected and only accessible by authorised staff in the practice. Password are chosen by each staff member and changed every two months for security. Our practice has no access to the internet thereby ensuring total security of patient file. |
| 6. | Use of Identifiers: This practice will only use the Medicare numbers collected from patients for the purpose of billing for medical services provided to its patients. It is therefore vital that all information given to staff is correct and up to date at all times. Similarly, we would not use or disclose any other government identifying number which you may give us. |
| 7. | Sending Information Overseas: Should it become necessary to transmit your person information overseas, we will endeavour to ensure that your personal information is adequately protected. |
| 8. | Complaints: Should a patient wish to complain about our medical services or any other related matter, they should contact our secretary staff in the first instance whereby any complaints will be dealt with promptly. Failure to do so entitles the patient to contact the commissioner. |
Your Privacy – Our Policy
The provision of quality health care requires a doctor-patient relationship of trust and confidentiality. Consistent with our commitment to quality care this practice has a policy to protect patient privacy in compliance with privacy legislation.
Major points of our privacy policy are:- We need your consent to collect information about you
- Why we need to collect your information
- How we will use your information and to whom we need to disclose it
- That you may request access to the information that we hold about you
- That you may discuss any concerns, questions or complaints that you may have about the way that we handle your information
