The policies below refer to policies for Goonellabah Medical Centre. Are you looking for the website policies? Website policies link
Current as of: August 8, 2021. Next Review: July 2022.
Our practice is committed to best practice in relation to the management of information we collect. This practice has developed a policy to protect patient privacy in compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (‘the Privacy Act’). Our policy is to inform you of:
When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our Gps and practice staff to access and use your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible healthcare. Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will seek additional consent from you to do this.
Definition of a Patient Health Record: The primary purpose of a health record is to provide a complete and accurate description of the patient’s medical history. This includes medical conditions, diagnoses, the care and treatment you provide, and results of such treatments. We collect information that is necessary and relevant to provide you with medical care and treatment, and manage our medical practice. The type of information we may collect and hold includes:
We will generally collect personal information:
In emergency situations we may also need to collect information from your relatives or friends.
We will treat your personal information as strictly private and confidential. We will only use or disclose it for purposes directly related to your care and treatment, or in ways that you would reasonably expect that we may use it for your ongoing care and treatment. We will also take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete, up to date and relevant. In general, we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:
You are entitled to request access to, and to correct your medical records. We request that you put your request in writing and we will respond to it within a reasonable time frame, usually within 30 days. Please contact our practice as noted in section 10 below under ‘Contact Details’. There may be a fee for the administrative and professional costs of retrieving and providing you with access and / or copies of your medical record. This cost will be advised in advance when responding to your initial request. You may also be asked to attend the practice where practical to speak with your treating doctor to access medical information from your file. Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will ask you to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and you should make such requests in writing to the Practicing Doctor, Goonellabah Medical Centre, 616 Ballina Road, Goonellabah NSW 2480..
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. Personal information that we hold is protected by:
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 section 11 below under ‘Contact 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 ‘Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’ (OAIC):
Phone: 1300 363 992 Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Post: GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 2001
Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/how-do-i-make-a-privacy-complaint
The Privacy Act provides that individuals must have the option of not identifying themselves, or of using a pseudonym, when dealing with our practice, except in certain circumstances, such as where it is impracticable for us to deal with you if you have not identified yourself.
We will not transfer your personal information to an overseas recipient unless we have your consent or we are required to do so by law.
Mrs Dianne Kerr
General Manager
616 Ballina Road Goonellabah NSW 2480
(02) 6625 0000
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This Policy will be reviewed from time to time to take account of new laws and technology, changes to our operations and other necessary developments. Updates will be publicised on the practice's website.
All patients have rights of access to health information held about them by this practice.
Accessing your health information may be as simple as requesting a copy of your latest pathology results from your medical practitioner during the course of a standard medical consultation.
However, more often than not, accessing your health information will involve far more work for our staff. We advise that the following procedure has been developed to ensure that all requests for access are dealt with as fairly and efficiently as possible:
Should you have any queries in relation to the above our practice staff are happy to address these for you.
Should you wish to make an application for access please approach our reception staff and they will assist you in getting started with your application.
Goonellabah Medical Centre
616 Ballina Road GOONELLABAH, N.S.W., 2480
Telephone (02) 6625-0000 Fax (02) 6624-4406 Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Publication date: 2 December, 2015
The policies of "Our privacy policy" and "Rights of access to health information" contained on this webpage are the policies directly relating to the policies of the Goonellabah Medical Centre.