Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

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:

  • the kinds of information that we collect and hold, which, as a medical practice, is likely to be ‘health information’ for the purposes of the Privacy Act;

  • how we collect and hold personal information;

  • the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information;

  • how you may access your personal information and seek the correction of that information;

  • how you may complain about a breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and how we will deal with such a complaint;

  • whether we are likely to disclose personal information to overseas recipients;

2. What kinds of personal information do we collect?

The type of information we may collect and hold includes:

  • Your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details

  • Medicare number, DVA number and other government identifiers, although we will not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice

  • Other health information about you, including:

    • notes of your symptoms or diagnosis and the treatment given to you

    • your specialist reports and test results

    • your appointment and billing details

    • your prescriptions and other pharmaceutical purchases

    • your dental records

    • your genetic information

    • your healthcare identifier 

    • any other information about your race, sexuality or religion, when collected by a health service provider.

3. How do we collect and hold personal information?

We will generally collect personal information:

  • from you directly when you provide your details to us. This might be via a face to face discussion, telephone conversation, registration form or online form

  • from a person responsible for you

  • from third parties where the Privacy Act or other law allows it - this may include, but is not limited to:  other members of your treating team, diagnostic centres, specialists, hospitals, the My Health Record system, electronic prescription services, Medicare, your health insurer, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme

4. Why do we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information?

In general, we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information for the following purposes:

  • to provide health services to you

  • to communicate with you in relation to the health service being provided to you 

  • to comply with our legal obligations, including, but not limited to, mandatory notification of communicable diseases or mandatory reporting under applicable child protection legislation. 

  • to help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our ITC systems

  • for consultations with other doctors and allied health professional involved in your healthcare; 

  • to obtain, analyse and discuss test results from diagnostic and pathology laboratories

  •  for identification and insurance claiming 

  • If you have a My Health Record, to upload your personal information to, and download your personal information from, the My Health Record system.

  • Information can also be disclosed through an electronic transfer of prescriptions service. 

  • To liaise with your health fund, government and regulatory bodies such as Medicare, the Department of Veteran's Affairs and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) (if you make a privacy complaint to the OAIC), as necessary.

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

You have a right to seek access to, and correction of the personal information which we hold about you.

For details on how to access and correct your health record, please contact us here. We will normally respond to your request within 30 days. 

6. How do we hold your personal information? 

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. 

7. Privacy related questions and complaints 

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 below for 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 OAIC:

Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Fax: +61 2 9284 9666
Post: GPO Box 5218 
Sydney NSW 2001
Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/how-do-i-make-a-privacy-complaint

8. Anonymity and pseudonyms

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.

9. Updates to this Policy

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. 

10. Website Privacy

We may collect personal information about you when you use and access our website. While we do not use browsing information to identify you personally, we may record certain information about your use of our website, such as which pages you visit, the time and date of your visit and the internet protocol address assigned to your computer.

We may also use ‘cookies’ or other similar tracking technologies on our website that help us track your website and/or mobile app usage and remember your preferences. Cookies are small files that store information on your computer, mobile phone or other device. They enable the entity that put the cookie on your device to recognise you across different websites, services, devices and/or browsing sessions. You can disable cookies, but our website may not work as intended for you if you do so.

We may also use cookies to enable us to collect data that may include personal information. For example, where a cookie is linked to your account, it will be considered personal information under the Privacy Act. 

We will handle any personal information collected by cookies in the same way that we handle all other personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

Our Service uses Google Analytics, a service that enables the tracking of user analytics including but not limited to browser information, operating system information, pages viewed while browsing the Service, Website, and Apps session times and referring website addresses, and enables us to help understand traffic and usage of the Service. Information about you regarding your usage behaviour is held by Google and is subject to its privacy policy which can be viewed here.

11. Contact details for privacy related issues

For any inquiries, please contact us on admin@DrLisaRobinson.com.au or 02 9480 8800.