Introduction

This privacy policy is to provide to you information on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within this practice, and the circumstances in which it may be shared with others.

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1.   Why and when your consent is necessary.

1.1 When you become a patient of this practice, you provide consent for us to access and use your personal information so we can provide you with the best possible health care. 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 consent from you to do this. If you do not provide this information; we may be unable to treat you.

[Note: Make sure your patient registration form or other process includes a section for patients to provide consent.]

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2.   Why do we collect, use, hold and share your personal information?

2.1 This practice will need to collect your personal information to provide quality health care services to you. The main purpose for collecting, using, holding, and sharing your personal information is to thoroughly assess and manage your health needs. We also use it for administrative purposes of the practice, billing, for directly related business activities, such as payments, practice audits, and business processes.

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3.   What personal information do we collect?

3.1 The information collected about you includes your:

3.1.1 names, date of birth, addresses, contact details, occupation

3.1.2 medical information including presenting complaint, medical history, current and previous medications, known allergic reactions, adverse events, immunisations, past and family history, relevant lifestyle history, risk factors, findings from pathology tests or other investigations.

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4.   Dealing with us anonymously

4.1 You have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless it is impracticable for us to do so or unless we are required or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.

[Note: The Privacy Act requires you to provide patients with the option of not identifying themselves, or of using a pseudonym, when dealing with you (APP 2) unless it is impracticable for you to do so. Information about this should appear in the practice privacy policy or collection notice.]

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5.   How do we collect your personal information?

5.1  This practice may collect your personal information in several different ways.

   5.1.1 When you make your first appointment we will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration. [Your practice should have a collection statement attached to/within the patient registration form.]

   5.1.2 During the course of providing health care services, we may collect further personal information.

   5.1.3 We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, telephone us, make an online appointment or communicate with us using social media (Such as Instagram).

   5.1.4 In some circumstances personal information may also be collected from other sources. Often this is because it is not practical or reasonable to collect it from you directly. This may include information from:

          5.1.4.1 your guardian or responsible person

          5.1.4.2 other involved health care providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services

          5.1.4.3 your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary).

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6.   When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?

6.1  We will only disclose your personal information for the purpose or purposes of consultation with another practitioner or as otherwise permitted by law and only with your consent. This may include disclosure of information to your doctors or other health professionals. In the case of insurance or compensation claim it may be necessary to disclose and or collect information that concerns your return to work to an insurer or your employer.

6.2  Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing health care services or as otherwise described in this policy, this practice will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.

6.3  We will not share your personal information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.

6.4  This practice will not use your personal information for marketing any goods or services to you without your express consent. If you do consent, you may opt out of direct marketing at any time by notifying this practice in writing.

6.5  This practice may use your personal information to improve the quality of the services offered to patients through research and analysis of patient data.

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7.   How do we store and protect your personal information?

7.1  Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms including paper records, electronic records, X-rays, CT scans, videos, photos, audio recordings.

7.2  This practice stores all personal information securely.

7.3  We adopt appropriate data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures to protect against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure or destruction of your personal information, username, password, transaction information and data stored on our Site.

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8.   How can you access and correct your personal information?

8.1  You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information.

8.2  This practice acknowledges patients may request access to their medical records. We require you to put this request in writing to be emailed to our email address (BloomNaturopath@gmail.com) and We will respond within 30 days of this request being received.

8.3  We 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 is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and you should make such requests in writing to be emailed to BloomNaturopath@gmail.com and we will respond within 30 days.

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9.   How can you lodge a privacy-related complaint, and how will the complaint be handled at this practice?

9.1  We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you may have in writing. We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure. If you have any queries or complaints about privacy please contact us at BloomNaturopath@gmail.com and we will endeavour to respond to any complaint within 30 days.

9.2  You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). Generally, the OAIC will require you to give them time to respond before they investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.

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10.  Links to Other Sites

10.1  We provide links to Web sites outside of our web site, as well as to third party Web sites. These linked sites are not under our control, and we cannot accept responsibility for the conduct of companies linked to our website. Before disclosing your personal information on any other website, we advise you to examine the terms and conditions of using that Web sites and its privacy statement.

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11. Privacy and website

11.1 This website may use cookies. When you consent to cookies we use these to do the following:

a) Deliver our core services to you including online booking, forms, invoice payments etc.

b) Monitor page performance and network capacity.

c) We do not utilise cookies for marketing or advertising purposes.

[Note: This section is optional. If you are collecting personal information via your practice website or interact with your patients digitally (eg. through social media or by email) you need to include a statement about the collection of personal information that occurs through the website or social media and the use of website analytics, cookies, etc.]

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12. Policy review statement

This privacy  policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure that it is in accordance with any changes that may occur. You are encouraged to check our website regularly to consider, and act on, any changes to our privacy policy. We reserve the right to change our privacy policy without notice to you.