Patient Privacy Policy

Re. Plastic Surgery (‘RPS’) views privacy and confidentiality of patient information in the highest regard. This privacy policy is available to all patients upon request.

We work within and uphold the National Privacy Principles. You may find further details of the NPP via the website for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

STORAGE OF MEDICAL RECORDS

RPS uses an electronic medical record system, where all patient notes, information and correspondence is held. Information held within our electronic medical record system is only accessible by RPS staff members, and is backed up securely offsite in Australia. RPS will only collect health information that is necessary to perform our functions.

DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES

We request your consent, in writing, to release any information regarding your care with RPS to a third party. This includes your GP, other Specialists involved in your care, and facilities where you have undergone treatment previously or concurrently.

Upon registration as a patient, we ask that you complete a consent form which will then allow us to liaise with other healthcare practitioners as required to offer the best service and care to you, and to transfer information between parties with this common goal in mind. Furthermore, this also involves liaison, where necessary, with insurers such as WorkSafe and TAC as required. You may also provide limited consent and advise specific parties we may not liaise with.

We cannot and will not release or discuss your medical record or personal information without your written consent, or verbal consent at each point of contact (i.e per each telephone call), third parties such as spouses, parents, friends or other parties.

Should you wish to revoke your consent for us to liaise with third parties (i.e other health care professionals involved in your care or insurers involved in your compensable claim) we will require this revocation in writing. Consent can be reinstated, again by providing it once again in writing.

ACCESSING YOUR INFORMATION

You may request access to the information held within your medical record at RPS at any time, except under circumstances whereby access may be denied as per the ‘Privacy Act’ or other applicable laws.

For example, access may be denied when allowing a patient access to their medical record would be detrimental or pose a threat to the life/health of the patient or the life/health of another person (this can include relatives, health care professionals, RPS staff or other patients). The risk or threat would need to be very significant though not necessarily imminent for this clause to be invoked, and access denied. Requests to access your medical record should be made in writing attention to the Operations Manager.

CAN I HAVE COPIES OF MY FILE FORWARDED TO A NEW PRACTITIONER?

On request, we are happy to provide a complete copy of your medical record to any new practitioner in the event that you transfer your care from our service to another. We are also happy to assist in providing relevant information from your record to your GP, or in the event that you attend hospital.

PATIENT PHOTOGRAPHS

Photographs are an important part of your medical record and are a form of personal information that is ‘sensitive information’.

During the course of your treatment, photographs may be taken for our records. These are necessary for accurate record keeping, comparison and reference. These photographs are accessible only by the staff in this practice.

Identifiable photographs will not be shown to other patients or published in medical literature without your express written consent. However, identifiable photographs may be shown without your express consent in closed medical sessions with other doctors or staff for educational purposes only. These sessions are bound by a code of strict confidentiality. Should you object please let us know.

WEBSITE VISITORS

Website visitors We collect data from our website using various technologies, including cookies. A cookie is a text file that our website sends to your browser which is stored on your computer as a tag identifying your computer to us. You can set your browser to disable cookies. However, some parts of our website may not function properly (or at all) if cookies are disabled.

For our website visitors, we collect information such as your IP address, internet service provider, the web page directing you to our website and your activity on our website. information is usually anonymous and we do not use it to identify individuals. However, due to the nature of internet protocols, such information might contain details that identify you.

HOW LONG ARE RECORDS HELD BY Re.PLASTIC SURGERY?

Medical records are required to be maintained and held for a minimum period of 7 years from the last point of contact with the patient, or in the case of a minor retained until the patient is 25 years of age and 7 years since last contact. Records may be destroyed after this timeframe has passed.

If you would like further information regarding our privacy policy, please contact us via email at [email protected] or by telephone 03 8840 0000.

DISCLAIMER

While we make every effort to protect your privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law where we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our company or site.