Macarthur Surgical Centre - Privacy Policy

1. We respect your privacy

Macarthur Surgical Centre ABN 60499881173 recognises the importance of your privacy and respects your right to control how your personal information is collected and used.  Macarthur Surgical Centre is committed to providing best practice in relation to the management of this so we have developed a policy to protect patient 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 ‘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;

2. What personal information do we collect and hold?

The type of information we may collect and hold includes:

  • Your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details

  • Medicare number, Health fund details, DVA number and other government identifiers if relevant

  • Other health information about you, including:

    • notes of your symptoms or diagnosis and the treatment given to you

    • your medical reports, test results, medication history

    • your appointment and billing details

    • your prescriptions

    • your dental records including X-rays/scans

    • your genetic information

    • your healthcare identifier

    • any other information about your race, sexuality or religion, when collected by a health service provider.

3. How do we collect and hold personal information?

We will generally collect personal information:

  • from you directly when you provide your details to us. This might be via our registration form or online form, telephone conversation, face to face conversation, email or SMS.

  • 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

4. Why do we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information?

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 help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing and health fund arrangements

  • 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

  • If you have a My Health Record, to upload your personal information to, and download your personal information from, the My Health Record system.

  • Information can also be disclosed through an electronic transfer of prescriptions service.

  • To liaise with your health fund and government bodies such as Medicare and the Department of Veteran's Affairs

5. How can you access and correct your personal information?

You have a right to seek access to the personal information which we hold about you.

For details on how to access, correct or update your medical health record, please contact our practice via email:  reception@macarthursc.com

6. How do we hold your personal information?

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 holding your information in our secure cloud storage database. We also have destruction policies in place for documents provided in hard copy that are no longer required.

8. Updates to this Policy

This Policy will be reviewed from time to time by Macarthur Surgical Centre to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and other necessary developments. Updates will be published on our practice website:  www.macarthursc.com

7. Contact details for privacy related questions

If you have any questions about privacy-related issues, wish to lodge a complaint or feel we may have breached our privacy policy please contact our Practice Manager either via phone (02)46283377 or email: jenni@macarthursc.com