Privacy Policy
Our practice is committed to ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information.
Our practice must comply with the Australian Privacy Principles and this policy is consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles of the Privacy Act 1988.
The purpose of this Privacy Policy is to clearly communicate how we handle your health information and metadata, and to give you a complete understanding of the type of personal information the practice may hold about you and how we may deal with it.
If you provide incomplete or inaccurate information, or withhold personal health information from us, we may not be able to provide you with the services you are seeking.
Why we collect personal information
We collect personal information from you when it is reasonably necessary to conduct the services you need. Other reasons we collect personal information include:
- Understanding you and how we can meet your needs now and in the future.
- Developing or evaluating your current and future health.
- Managing our business/practice and complying with legal obligations.
- Claiming payment from Medicare and insurers.
- Complying with reporting obligations to third-party collaborators (assisting medical professionals, NDIS, case managers and post-operative support teams).
- Enabling correspondence and reports to and from our clinical system to other healthcare providers.
- Developing research statistics.
Where we collect information
We collect most personal information directly from you — via an online form, in the clinic, on the phone, or from a direct referral. We may also collect it when you pay a bill, make an appointment or during a consultation.
When you visit our website we may use cookies and other digital identifiers for site performance, analytics and advertising. You can clear or disable cookies through your browser settings, though some parts of the site may not work as they should.
Who we work with
We may share your personal information within a wider group of professional service providers, which may include case managers, medical practitioners, allied health professionals and other parties reasonably expected to be involved in your care.
We work with third parties for some types of support. These companies are subject to strict controls that protect your information from unauthorised use and limit their access to only what is necessary.
Legal obligations
We give access to personal information where we are permitted or obliged to do so by Australian law — for example, to react to unlawful activity or serious misconduct, or to reduce a serious threat to life, health or safety. We will otherwise only disclose personal information with your permission or where you would reasonably expect us to.
How we protect your information
Some of the security measures we use include:
- Firewalls and access logging tools that protect against unauthorised access.
- Secure work environments and workflow systems.
- Secure server and closed network environments.
- Encryption of data in transit using SSL 128-bit encryption.
- Virus scanning tools and management of access privileges.
- Ongoing training and security reviews.
Accessing your personal information
If you ask us, we will usually give you access to the personal information we hold about you, after confirming your identity. There are limited circumstances under Australian privacy law where we may not — for example, where it would unreasonably affect someone else's privacy or pose a serious threat to safety.
We aim to keep your information accurate, up to date and complete. If you think our records need correcting, please call us.
Getting in touch
Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about this policy. You can contact us by mail to the address on this website, or by phone on 02 6253 2388. If you are unhappy with the outcome of a complaint, you can lodge a complaint with the Healthcare Complaints Commission.
We'll amend this policy if our practices change.