Privacy Policy
Gladesville Healthcare respects your privacy. This policy explains what personal and health information we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and how you can access or correct it.
We handle your information in line with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles, and, because we are a health service provider in New South Wales, the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW).
The information we collect
Most of what we collect is health information, which the law treats as sensitive information and protects more strictly than ordinary personal details. It includes:
- Your name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address.
- Your Medicare number, DVA number, private health fund details and any concession card, where these apply to your care or your claim.
- Your medical history, symptoms, examination findings, treatment notes, referrals, imaging and test results, and correspondence with other practitioners involved in your care.
- Your emergency contact, and for a patient under 18, their parent or guardian's details.
- Payment and billing records.
How we collect it
Usually directly from you: when you book, when you fill in a new patient form, during your appointment, or when you contact us by phone, email or through this website.
Sometimes we receive it from someone else, such as a referring GP or specialist, a hospital, an insurer, or a parent or carer acting on your behalf. Where we collect information about you from a third party, we take reasonable steps to make sure you know we have it.
Why we collect it and how we use it
- To assess, diagnose and treat you, and to plan and review your care over time.
- To communicate with you about your appointments, including reminders and follow-ups.
- To bill you, and to process rebates and claims.
- To answer your enquiries and to respond to feedback or a complaint.
- To meet our legal, professional, insurance and accreditation obligations.
- To improve our services, using information that does not identify you wherever possible.
We only send you marketing communications if you have asked for them or would reasonably expect them, and every one of them includes a way to opt out. We never use your health information to target advertising to you.
Who we share it with
We do not sell your information, and we do not share it with anyone unless you have agreed, or the law requires or allows it. In practice, that means we may share it with:
- Other practitioners within our clinic who are involved in your care. We are a multi-disciplinary clinic and our practitioners work together where that helps you.
- Your GP, specialist or another treating practitioner, where you have consented or where it is directly related to your care.
- Medicare, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, your private health fund, or an insurer or third-party payer, where a claim or funded program applies.
- Our practice management and booking provider, PracSuite, which stores your records securely on our behalf, and our accounting and payment providers.
- Our professional indemnity insurer or legal advisers, if a claim or a complaint is made.
- Anyone we are required to disclose to by law, including a court order or subpoena, or where disclosure is needed to lessen a serious threat to someone's life, health or safety.
This website
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies, including Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and advertising tools from Google and Meta. These tell us things like which pages people visit and whether an ad led to an enquiry. They do not tell us anything about your health, and no health information is ever passed to them.
You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings. Some parts of the site may not work as well if you do.
If you send us a message through the contact form on this website, it reaches us by email. Email is not a secure channel, so please do not use it to send detailed health information. Call us instead, or raise it at your appointment.
How we store and protect it
Your records are held electronically in our practice management system, with access restricted to staff who need it to do their job. Systems are password protected, paper records are kept in a secure area, and our team is trained on their privacy obligations.
No system can be guaranteed completely secure, but we take reasonable steps to protect your information from loss, misuse and unauthorised access, and we destroy or de-identify it securely once we no longer need to keep it.
How long we keep it
For an adult, we are required to keep health records for at least seven years from the date of the last service we provided you. For a patient who was under 18 at the time, we must keep the record until they turn 25.
Accessing and correcting your information
You can ask to see the information we hold about you, and to have it corrected if it is wrong, out of date or incomplete. Contact us using the details below. We may ask you to put the request in writing and to confirm your identity, and there may be a fee for the cost of producing copies.
We will respond within a reasonable time. There are limited situations where we may not be able to give you access, for example where doing so would pose a serious threat to someone's life or health, or affect another person's privacy. If that happens we will explain why in writing.
Making a complaint
If you think we have mishandled your information, please tell us first using the details below. We take complaints seriously and will investigate and respond to you.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner atoaic.gov.au, or the NSW Information and Privacy Commission atipc.nsw.gov.au.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always the one on this page, and the date at the top tells you when it last changed.
Contact us
- Gladesville Healthcare
- 74 Morrison Rd, Gladesville NSW 2111
- Phone: (02) 9816 3071
- Email: info@gladesvillehealthcare.com.au
