Our commitment to your privacy

We are committed to handling personal information about you, including health information about you, in accordance with the requirements of the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988.

In this Policy, we explain:

• what kind of information we collect and hold about you
• how and why we collect it
• what we do with that information and who we share it with (and when)
• your right to seek access to, and if required correction of, the records we hold about you
• your right to make a privacy complaint, to us and others
• whether we are likely to disclose information about you to overseas recipients.

What kind of personal information do we collect about you?

We collect and hold the following kind of information about you:

• your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details
• information about your family or relatives
• information about other health professionals involved in your care
• any government identifiers such as Medicare number, DVA number. However, we do not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice
• other health information about you such as: a record of your symptoms, your relevant medical history, the diagnosis made and the treatment we give you:
• specialist reports
• test results
• your appointment and billing details
• your prescriptions
• your healthcare identifier
• your health fund details
• other information about you collected for the purposes of providing care to you.
• your right to make a privacy complaint, to us and others
• whether we are likely to disclose information about you to overseas recipients.

How do we collect and hold your personal information?

We will generally collect personal information about you in these ways:

• directly from you when you give us your details (eg, face-to-face, over the phone, or an online form)
• from a person responsible for you
• from a third party where we are permitted by law to do that (eg. other health care professionals involved in your care, from your health insurer etc.).

Why do we collect and use information about you?

We primarily collect and use personal information about you to provide our physiotherapy services to you and to communicate with you and others involved in your care in relation to those services.

We also sometimes use that information for other purposes, including:

• to help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our IT systems and
• to conduct accreditation, quality assurance or internal audits.

When and why might we share information about you with others?

We may disclose information about you to others outside of our practice as permitted or required under law. This will include situations where we disclose information about you in order:

• to comply with our legal obligations (eg. mandatory reporting under legislation, responding to a court order or subpoena)
• to consult with other health professionals involved in your healthcare eg GP, Specialist
• to get test results from diagnostic and pathology services
• to claim on insurance
• to communicate with your health fund, with government and other regulatory bodies such as Medicare
• to help us manage our accounts and administrative services (eg. billing or debt recovery, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts etc.).
• to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient's life, health or safety or a serious threat to public health or safety
• to help in locating a missing person
• to prepare the defence of anticipated or existing legal proceedings
• to discharge notification obligations to liability insurers.

We will not release your personal information for marketing purposes.

Your right to seek access to and to seek correction of the information we hold about you

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

To make a request to access your information, you should write a short letter stating the specific information you require and the reason you would like it. We will normally respond to your request within 30 days. We cannot release any documents we have received from third parties. You will need to contact those parties directly. We will charge a small administration fee should you require a copy of your information.

If you think that the information we hold about you is not correct, please let us know. We will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up-to-date. Please notify us if and when any of your contact details change. (see ‘how to contact us’).

Security: how we hold your personal information

We take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold about you. These are designed to prevent unauthorised access, modification or disclosure and to prevent misuse and loss. This includes:

• We have hard copy files for all patients stored within the practice.
• Files are stored in non-public areas within the practice.
• Information on computers is password protected.
• Digital Information is backed up on external drives and stored securely off site.
• Staff are trained in confidentiality and privacy issues
• Access to information is on a ‘need to know’ basis
• Facsimile transmission is via a secure fax system endorsed by government health bodies

Your right to receive treatment from us anonymously (or by using a pseudonym)

Where it is lawful and practicable for us to do so, you can be treated anonymously or through use of a pseudonym (a name other than yours).

Disclosing information about you overseas

We do not propose to disclose information about you to anyone overseas. If we want to transfer your personal information overseas, we will first seek your consent, unless we are required by law to do the transfer.

If you have a privacy-related concern about us

If you have concerns about the way we’ve handled your privacy, please let us know. You should do that in writing. We will then try to respond to you within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can refer your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commission, whose contact details are:

Phone:	1300 363 992
Email:	enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Post:	GPO Box 5218 Sydney New South Wales 2001

Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/

Updating this policy

We will update this policy from time to time, to reflect any changes in our information-handling ractices or the law or both.

We will notify you of changes to the policy by updating our website and notice at the practice.

How to contact us

To contact us about any privacy related issues, please approach:

Megan Mulligan, Practice Manager, on (02) 4443 9810.

Your access/use implies agreement

The website is available for your use only on condition that you agree to these terms of use. By accessing/using the website, you are signifying that you agree to be bound by these terms.

Modifications to the Terms

Bay & Basin Physio may revise and update these terms of use at any time. Your continued usage of the website after any changes to these terms of use will mean you accept those changes.

Errors and problems

Bay & Basin Physio does not guarantee that the website will be free from viruses, or that access to the website will be uninterrupted.

License and Ownership

The copyright for the content on this website unless otherwise stated is owned or licensed by Bay & Basin Physio and/or our website providers, Total Interactive and is protected under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) and by other copyright laws in both Australia and other countries. No material on this website may be reproduced, adapted, uploaded to a third party, linked to, framed, performed in public, distributed or transmitted in any form by any process without the specific written consent of Total Interactive.

Outbound links

The website may contain links to third-party websites and resources (“linked sites”). These linked sites are provided solely as a convenience to you and not as an endorsement by Bay & Basin Physio. Bay & Basin Physio makes no representations or warranties regarding the availability, correctness, accuracy, performance or quality of the linked site or any content, software, service or application found at any linked site. Bay & Basin Physio may receive payments and/or commissions from operators of linked sites in relation to goods or services supplied by the operator as a result of you linking to the third party website from the website.

Inbound links

Bay & Basin Physio generally encourages and agrees to your linking to the Home page through a plain text link on your website without the need for agreement between yourself and Bay & Basin Physio. However should you link to any page on our website, you acknowledge that: any page(s) may be changed, supplemented, deleted or updated without notice at the sole discretion of Bay & Basin Physio.

Disclaimer of Warranties

Bay & Basin Physio makes no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, security or timeliness of the content, information or services provided by the website and disclaims all warranties, either express or implied, statutory or otherwise, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, non-infringement of third parties' rights, and fitness for a particular purpose.

Limitation of Liability

If Bay & Basin Physio is found responsible for any damages, Bay & Basin Physio is responsible for actual damages only. In no event shall Bay & Basin Physio, be liable for any incidental, indirect, exemplary, punitive and/or consequential damages, lost profits, or damages resulting from lost data or business interruption resulting from the use of or inability to use the website.

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