Privacy Policy

• • Your name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address
• • Medicare, DVA, health fund and Individual Healthcare Identifier details
• • Health information, such as your medical history, medications, allergies, clinical notes, test results, images, referrals and letters from other providers
• • Billing and payment details, and records of calls, messages and emails about your care
• • CCTV footage of our common areas and entrances

We collect most of this from you, when you register, during consultations and when you contact us. We also receive information from others involved in your care, such as referring doctors, pathology and imaging providers, and My Health Record.

We hold it in electronic systems and some paper records, and take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, loss and unauthorised access.

Where it is lawful and practical, you can deal with us without giving your name or by using a different name, for example for a general enquiry. We usually need to know who you are to treat you, prescribe or claim Medicare.

• • To provide your healthcare
• • For billing, and Medicare, DVA and health fund claims
• • To meet our legal obligations
• • To run the practice, including clinical review, quality improvement and accreditation

We may give information with names and identifying details removed to the Primary Health Network for health planning. You can ask to be left out.

Our doctors may use an AI tool to help draft consultation notes. They use it only if you and anyone with you agree first, and you can say no. Your doctor checks the note and is responsible for it.

Software may assist with some tasks, such as drug interaction alerts, but a clinician makes the decisions about your care.

We share relevant information with others involved in your care, such as doctors, specialists, hospitals, allied health providers, pharmacies, and pathology and imaging providers. We also share it with Medicare, DVA and health funds for claims, with people you authorise, and with service providers that help run our practice.

Some national systems are part of care: electronic prescribing, the Australian Immunisation Register, notifying certain diseases to health authorities, and My Health Record unless you have opted out of it.

We may also share information without your consent where:

• • there is a serious and imminent threat to someone’s life, health or safety, or a serious threat to public health or safety, sharing is needed to lessen or prevent it, and it is unreasonable or impracticable to get your consent
• • the law requires or authorises it
• • a court order or subpoena requires it
• • NSW law allows information to be exchanged about a child’s or young person’s safety, welfare or wellbeing

Some of the technology providers we use may store or access information overseas, including in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

We keep records as the law requires: generally 7 years after your last visit for adults, and until age 25 for children.

If a data breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and the regulator where the law requires.

You can ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, including your health record, or ask us to correct it, by contacting our Privacy Officer. We will confirm who you are first.

It is free to ask. We may charge a reasonable cost for providing access, such as copying and postage, and will tell you the cost first. Requests from third parties, such as lawyers and insurers, need your written authority, and we charge them for the work.

If we refuse access or a correction, we will tell you in writing why and how to complain. If we do not agree to a correction, you can ask us to add your statement to your record.

We send occasional messages about our services only with your consent, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Messages about your own care, such as appointments, results and recalls, are separate.

Our websites use no advertising trackers and set no cookies of our own. We keep basic visit statistics without storing IP addresses. Online booking, where offered, is provided by a third-party provider under its own privacy policy.

If you are concerned about how we have handled your information, write to our Privacy Officer. We will look into it and respond within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied, you can complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992, or, for health information, to the Information and Privacy Commission NSW at ipc.nsw.gov.au.

• Email: reception@heliosmedicalrooms.com.au
• Phone: (02) 4288 2524
• Post: Privacy Officer, Helios Medical Rooms Pty Ltd, PO Box 44 Unanderra NSW 2526

We may update this policy. The current version is always on this page.