Current as of June 2021
(Our privacy policy is revised on a regular basis in line with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) legislation)

Perth Men’s Health is an APP entity as defined by the Privacy Act 1988 and is committed to ensuring your personal information is professionally managed in accordance with all Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). This privacy policy is to provide information to you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we share it with third parties.

What personal information we collect and why

When you register as a patient of Perth Men’s Health, your doctor and/or their support team will need to collect your personal information, so they can provide you with the best possible healthcare services. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits, accreditation and normal business processes.

The personal information we collect and hold generally includes:
● Your name, address, date of birth, contact details, name of an authorised contact you authorise us to contact in certain circumstances and/or partner details if provided, occupation, and email address.
● Information about your health condition, medical history, social and family history, risk factors, medications, allergies, adverse health events, immunisations and treatment you may have already received.
● Medicare number or DVA number for identification and claiming purposes.
● Private health fund details.
Only practice staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. All practice staff have signed a Confidentiality Agreement as part of their Employment Contract with us.

Data quality and security

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete, up-to-date and relevant. For this purpose, our staff may ask you to confirm that your contact details are correct when you attend a consultation. We request that you let us know if your information is incorrect or out of date.

Personal information that we hold is protected by:
• securing our premises;
• placing passwords and varying access levels on databases to limit access and protect electronic information from unauthorised interference, restricted access, modification and disclosure;
• regular updates to IT systems to ensure that the most up to date security protocols and strong firewall security is maintained;
• all staff are trained in understanding the sensitivity of the records held within the Practice and the circumstances where disclosure of information can and cannot be provided; and
• providing locked cabinets and rooms for the storage of physical records.

How we collect your personal information

Our practice will collect your personal information:
Directly and in person, over the phone, by email, SMS, or by completing our online or hard copy forms.
When you make your first appointment, our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration and your referral.

If it is not possible to collect it from you directly, we may also collect this information from:
● Your guardian or person responsible.
● Other involved healthcare providers such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services.
● Your Private Health Fund, Medicare or DVA.

Who we share your personal information with and when

● Other healthcare providers who are involved in your care, referrals to other specialists and healthcare providers.
● Third parties who work with our practice for business purposes (such as IT providers and accreditation agencies).
● Statutory requirement to lawfully share certain personal information, such as mandatory notification of certain diseases.
● Court subpoenas required or authorised by law.
● When necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, or it is impractical to obtain the patient’s consent.
● Medicare for the purposes of making online claims and verifying Medicare particulars.
● During the course of providing medical services through Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (eTP), or My Health Record system, Health Link, HealthEngine, our Practice may also transmit this information via Post, Facsimile or Email.

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

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

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

How we store and protect your personal information

Your personal information may be stored at our practice as paper records, electronic records, audio recordings, x-rays, CT scans, MRI scans, PET scans.
Our practice stores all personal information securely and has strict protocols and policies to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse, loss, interference or unauthorized access.

Electronic format is encrypted, and password protected.

Physical records and information are stored in secure locked cabinets.

All staff and contractors must sign confidentiality agreements prior to commencing work with and for our practice.

How you can access and correct your personal information at our practice

Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. We will ask you at different times, to verify your information held by our practice is correct and up to date.

You have the right to access and correct personal information that we hold about you, in electronic – (with your completion of a consent form to have information provided via email) or hard copy format.

If you wish to access or correct your personal information we request that you put it in writing and contact Perth Men’s Health administration staff on 9389 1400 or email info@perthmenshealth.com.au.

To ensure a high standard of security of your records is maintained our staff may take reasonable steps to identify you, such as presentation of your Driver’s licence or Medicare card. Your request for access and/or correction will be processed within 30 days.

You may be charged an administration, photocopying or other fees to reasonably cover our costs in fulfilling your request.

How you can lodge a privacy related complaint and how it will be handled at our practice

If you have any concerns about your privacy or wish to make a complaint about a privacy breach, contact our practice administration staff via phone 9389 1400 or email admin@perthmenshealth.com.au.

Your complaint will be forwarded to our Practice Manager for investigation. You should provide us with sufficient details regarding your complaint together with any supporting information. We will take steps to investigate the issue and will notify you in writing of the outcome within 30 days from the receipt date of the original written complaint.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact us directly to discuss your further concerns. Or you may lodge a complaint with the Australian Information Commissioner at www.oaic.gov.au or by calling 1300 363 992.

Dealing with us anonymously

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 requested or authorized by law to only deal with identified individuals.

Please be aware for the purposes of validation checks with Medicare for claiming rebates, and/or referring on for tests which may incur a Medicare rebate, this is only possible with the use of certain identity criteria such as, Legal name, Date of Birth, and address. Without this information we will not be able to complete this on your behalf.

In the case of a Notifiable Data Breach

In the event, of a data breach to our systems which potentially, or has, breached our patients privacy, and where it is deemed that such a breach may cause serious harm to our patients as outlined by the OAIC, we will take all reasonable steps to locate and immediately advise any individuals affected by such a data breach and take steps to minimize any potential loss of privacy/confidentiality to our patients as a result.

We will advise the OAIC of any such breaches and provide a statement on our website advising of this for a period of up to 6 months

As our patient’s privacy is of paramount importance to our Practice, in the event of a data breach which does not fall within the criteria of a notifiable breach, our staff will take immediate steps to minimize any potential loss of privacy and wherever possible advise any individuals affected by such a breach as soon as practical of what has occurred.

Policy review statement

This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur. We will notify our patients of these changes via our website and a hard copy of our Privacy Policy is available at our practice premises.

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