Privacy Policy

About our privacy policy 

This privacy policy explains how we collect, hold, use, disclose, secure and otherwise manage the personal information, including the health information, of patients who use our services and others whose personal information we collect in order to provide these services . It describes the types of information we collect and hold and why, how to access and correct the information and how to make a privacy complaint.

What personal information do we collect and hold?

The information we collect will depend on who the individual is, such as a patient admitted to one of our hospitals, or attending one of our medical centres or pathology services, a health service provider, a next of kin, a guardian or other responsible person, an emergency contact or person responsible for paying an account, and may include an individual’s:

• Name, address (postal and email) and telephone numbers
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Next of kin
• Payment information such as credit card details
• Health fund and health insurance cover details
• Workers compensation or other insurance claim details
• Medicare details/ concessioncard details
• Medical history and other health information we are provided with or we collect in the course of providing our services
• Other details an individual provides for admission to or discharge from one of our hospitals
• Practice details if the individual is a general practitioner; and
• Other information we need to provide our services. In certain circumstances, we are required by Australian law to collect some of this information, such as Medicare details.

How do we collect personal information?

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, email, 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 system1, electronic prescription services, Medicare, your health insurer, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

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 help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our ITC 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
• 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.

To whom do we disclose personal information? 

We may disclose an individual’s personal information to the following third parties for the above purposes to:

• Other health service providers involved in the individual’s treatment or diagnostic services
• Private healthinsurers andother WorkCover insurers.
• Students of the health profession undertaking clinical placements, but not when an individual has opted out of student teaching activities
• A responsible person (e.g. parent, guardian, spouse) when the individual is incapable or cannot communicate, unless the individual has requested.
• Our insurers and legal representatives
• Service providers engaged to provide services to our hospitals and other facilities including manufacturers and suppliers of medical devices, providers of pathology and radiology services, some of whom may be located- interstate.

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:

• Measures to protect the security of electronic records – firewall, virus protection and backups
• Paper records are kept securely and destroyed securely when no longer needed
• Practice staff sign confidentiality agreements

How can you access and correct your personal information?

We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information we collect is accurate, complete and up-to-date, and also when we use or disclose it, that it is relevant.
A request to correct personal information can be made at any time by contacting us on the details below. However, the accuracy of that information depends largely on the quality of the information provided to us. We therefore suggest that individuals:

• Let us know if there are any errors in their personal information; and
• keep us up-to-date with changes to their personal information (e.g. their name and address). Individuals may do this by mail or email using the information provided below.

Brain and spine Clinic
1 Hope street
Penrith NSW 2750
Phone: ( 02) 47078667
Fax: (02) 4704 8662
Email : reception@brainandspineclinic.org.au

Privacy related questions and complaints 

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

Changes to this privacy policy

We may make changes to this policy from time to time, to take into account changes to our standard practices and procedures or where necessary to comply with new laws and regulations. The latest version of this policy will always be available on the internet site https://brainandspineclinic.com.au

Updated 19.06.2020