POLICIES

Non attendance of a face to face or telephone appointment will incur a fee. See fees page for more details. Booking your appointment signifies you accept these conditions and fees.

Late cancellation of appointment will incur a fee if cancelled later than 2 hours notice. Booking your appointment signifies you accept these conditions and fees.

The Doctors working out of and the staff at Sundale Medical are subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (as from 21 December 2001), and also subject to similar State legislation operating in some States and Territories of Australia. This document sets out Sundale Medical’s Privacy Policy. By attending any of the Doctors practising out of Sundale Medical, you consent to your personal information being collected, stored and used in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Health service providers are independent:

Sundale Medical is in the business of providing access to exceptional clinical care for all those who require general practice services. In conducting its business, Sundale Medical makes its premises available to health service providers. The health service providers and Sundale Medical are not partners and are not in an employee-employer relationship and each health service provider, in providing health services etc., is, at all times, an independent contractor and not doing so as the servant or agent or otherwise on behalf of Sundale Medical.

Patient records:

All patient records are the property of Sundale Medical, not the property of the patient.

What type of personal information is collected and how is it collected?

Personal information, such as your name, address, date of birth, contact numbers, and Medicare numbers are collected. Commonly, this is collected by an administrative employee of Sundale Medical, such as a receptionist. Other personal information, particularly health information, is collected by the independent health practitioner (Doctor or Allied Health Practitioner) and recorded in the patient records. Sometimes, health information is received, and placed on those patient records, from other health service providers who are external to Sundale Medical. Examples of this are records / reports from specialists, hospitals or pathology reports. This information does not belong to the patient.

Why do we collect your personal information?

The importance of health service providers sharing personal information about a patient, during the provision of health services to that patient, is widely accepted by the community. In the health sector, the flow of personal information usually occurs in accordance with concepts such as sharing within the “treating team” or on a “need to know basis”. Under this approach health service providers share necessary information to deliver optimum patient care. For such health service providers, the use and disclosure of personal information is already bound by codes of practice of their professions.

To provide access for provision of health services to you

to enable that information to be available to those health service providers (whether in the medical centre or external to it) who need access to the information in order for such health service providers to provide health services to you;

and for Administration:

> to enable Sundale Medical to charge, bill and collect fees from health service providers in respect of the non-health services Sundale Medical provides to those health service providers; and

> to enable Sundale Medical to gain an understanding of the types of health services, in general, that are needed by patients at large so that the health services available at a medical centre keep meeting patient needs; and

> to enable Sundale Medical to implement management functions in respect of the medical centre, including service-monitoring, quality assurance activities, complaint handling, planning, evaluation and accreditation activities; and Regulatory purposes

> to fulfil all legal and other regulatory requirements of Sundale Medical, including disclosure to a court or similar body, lawyers or insurers, where court or similar proceedings are on foot or anticipated; and

> to hold patient records available for health service providers where they are required to maintain such records under legal and other regulatory requirements; and Supplying bulk de-identified health information

> to enable Sundale Medical to provide third parties with a quantity of de-identified health information. Before any health information is provided to a third party it is de-identified, that is, the name and address of the patient and any other information that could otherwise allow an individual to be identified, is removed from the health information. That de-identified information is then aggregated with the de-identified health information in respect of other patients. The third party (eg, Primary Healthcare network) uses the bulk de-identified information it receives from Sundale Medical for the business purposes of the third party (eg, analysis of statistics, planning and management of their health services business).

Disclosure of personal information:

Sundale Medical will not disclose your personal information to any third party, except in the following circumstances:

> it is for the purpose of provision of health services to you, as described above; or

> is for a regulatory purpose described above; or

> it is part of bulk de-identified health information, as described above; or

> it is otherwise required by law.

How you can access your personal information:

On request, you may have access to your personal information held by Sundale Medical, except in circumstances where access may be denied under the Privacy Act or other law. Examples of these circumstances are:

> where providing access will pose an unreasonable impact on the privacy of another individual; or

> where your request for access is frivolous or vexatious; or

> where the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between Sundale Medical and you, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those legal proceedings; or

> where providing access would be unlawful, would pose a threat to the life or health of an individual, may prejudice an investigation of possible unlawful activity, may prejudice enforcement of laws, or denying access is specifically authorized by law.

To make a request for your personal information, please contact the Practice Manager at Sundale Medical in writing. Sundale Medical will endeavour to acknowledge a request for access to personal information within 14 days and provide the information requested within 30 days.

If personal information is provided to you as the result of a request, you will be charged a fee for costs incurred in providing that information such as photocopying, the administration time involved in processing your request, and postage. If access is denied Sundale Medical will provide you with reasons for its decision.

How you can correct your personal information:

If you believe that the personal information Sundale Medical holds about you is inaccurate, incomplete or not up to date, please let Sundale Medical know. Provided Sundale Medical agrees with you, Sundale Medical will correct it.

If it is the case that you allege some health information is incorrect, Sundale Medical will consult your relevant health service providers about the matter. If your healthcare provider does not agree with you, Sundale Medical will place a statement of what you allege is correct where that information is kept and accessed.

Currency of this Privacy Policy:

Sundale Medical reserves the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. The varied policy terms will be made available to all patients at the reception counter of the medical centre. They will apply to each patient from the date that patient next visits the medical centre after the new policy was made available. You accept that by doing this, Sundale Medical has provided you with sufficient notice of the variation and agree you will be provided with no separate notification.

This Privacy Policy was created in April 2021.

How to contact us regarding your Privacy & Health Information:

If you have any queries or complaints regarding your service, information or privacy, contact the practice manager by:

Telephone: 0756315959 – Reception will take a message and get the manager to call you back if they are not available;

Email: reception@smed.com.au

By making an appointment with the Practice Manager – ask at reception.