West Gippsland Paediatric Group Privacy Policy

West Gippsland Paediatric Group takes its obligations under the Victorian Health Records Act 2001 and the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 seriously and we will take all reasonable steps to protect the privacy of your personal and health information. This policy sets out how we intend to so.

 

Collection Of Your Information

WGP collects and holds personal and health information about you, your child and your family.

 

WGP collects information from you so that we may properly assess, diagnose, treat and meet your health care needs. All members of the professional team involved in your care will have access to this information.

 

In most cases we will obtain the information directly from you or your treating Doctor.

 

Using And Disclosing Your Information

In order to provide you with a high quality of care, we may use and disclose the information you give to us in the following ways:

1. Disclosure to others involved in your health care, including treating doctors, pathology services, radiology services and other specialists outside this medical practice. This may occur through referral to other doctors, or for medical tests and in the reports or results returned to us following the referrals.

2. Disclosure to satisfy our legal obligations to report including:
• Notifiable diseases;
• Children under 17 years in need of protection;
• Registration of births and deaths;
• Mandatory reporting.

3. Disclosure to enable recording on medical registers (for example the Diabetes Register and Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit – ASPU).

4. We may use or disclose your information for administrative purposes in running our medical practice. This may include disclosure to our insurer or medical indemnity provider, quality assurance and accreditation bodies.

5. We may use or disclose your information for billing purposes, including providing information to your health insurance fund, the Health Insurance Commission (Medicare) and other organisations responsible for the financial aspects of your care (for example the Department of Human Services).

6. Conducting research.

7. Assisting with training and education of other health professionals, for example, WGP assists with the education of Monash University medical students.

 

Accuracy Of Your Information

Our goal is to ensure that your information is accurate, complete and up-to-date. To assist us with this, please contact us if any of the details you have provided change.

Further, if you believe that the information we have about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, contact us and we will use all reasonable efforts to correct the information.

 

What Happens If You Choose Not To Provide The Information?

You are not obliged to give us your personal or health information. However, if you choose not to provide WGP with your personal or health information we may not be able to provide you with the full range of our services (for example: referral to other health workers outside this Practice).

Failure to provide adequate information may also affect the quality of health care given to you or your child.

 

Storage

We will make every reasonable effort to physically and electronically protect the security of your personal and health information which we hold.

 

Access To Your Personal Information

Access to your personal and health information will be provided in accordance with our Access Policy. If you require access to your personal or health information please ask our staff for further details.

 

Contract

We do not contract out data storage or processing functions.

 

Our Privacy Obligations And Children

A child’s right to the privacy of his or her personal and health information will depend on the circumstances of each case and will be based on the professional judgement of the doctor.

The doctor’s decision regarding the child’s right to privacy will be consistent with the law, and might restrict access to the child’s information by parents or guardians.

 

Complaints

A privacy complaint relates to any concern or dispute that you have with the way we handle or deal with you or your child’s personal and health information. This could include matters such as how personal information is collected, stored, used, disclosed or how access is provided.

If you have any complaints about our privacy practices or wish to make a complaint about how your personal information is managed please contact the Practice Manager. We prefer that your complaint is in writing.

We take our commitment to your right to privacy seriously and all complaints will be dealt with fairly and as quickly as possible.

If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of our handling of your complaint you may contact the Victorian Health Services Commissioner or the Federal Privacy Commissioner.

Scroll to Top