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New patients are asked to consent to the policy terms as outlined below.

Cambourne Clinic collects information from you for the primary purpose of providing quality health care. We require you to provide us with your personal details and a full medical history so that we may properly assess, diagnose and treat illnesses and medical conditions, ensuring we are proactive in your health care.

To enable ongoing care, and in keeping with the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles, we wish to provide you, our patient, with sufficient information on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected, used or disclosed within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.

Personal Information
Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide healthcare services to you. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to manage your health. Your personal information will only be used for the purposes for which it was collected or as otherwise permitted by law, and we respect your right to determine how your information is used or disclosed.

At all times we are required to ensure your details are treated with the utmost confidentiality. Your records are very important and we will take all steps necessary to ensure they remain confidential. Only people that need to access your 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.

The information we collect may be collected by a number of different methods and examples may include:

names, date of birth, addresses, contact details
healthcare identifiers
medical information including medical history, test results, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors
data collected from observations and conversations with you
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

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:

your guardian or responsible person
other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services
your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (as necessary)
information through MyHealth Record

When you sign the new patients form you (as a patient/parent/guardian) consent to the collection of your personal information, and that it may be used or disclosed by the practice for the following purposes:

administrative purposes in the operation of our general practice
billing purposes, including compliance with Medicare requirements
follow-up reminder/recall notices for treatment and preventative healthcare, frequently issued by SMS.
disclosure to others involved in your health care, including treating doctors and specialists outside this medical practice. This may occur through referral to other doctors, or for medical tests and in the reports or results returned to us following the referrals
when it is 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
to assist in locating a missing person
accreditation and quality assurance activities to improve individual and community health care and practice management
for legal related disclosure as required by a court of law (e.g. court subpoenas)
to establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim
business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes
to allow medical students and staff to participate in medical training/teaching using only de-identified information
for the purposes of research only where de-identified information is used
to comply with any legislative or regulatory requirements, e.g. notifiable diseases
for use when seeking treatment by other doctors in this practice
with third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies or information technology providers – these third parties are required to comply with APPs and this policy

How do we store and protect your personal information?

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms as paper records, electronic records or in a visual format such as photos relevant to health treatment for example skin lesions.

Our practice stores all personal information securely. All electronic information is stored in protected information systems and any hard copy information is stored in a secure environment and only accessible to authorised persons. All staff and contractors sign confidentiality agreements and understand their obligations in relations to information privacy, confidentiality, and security.

Electronic communication with patients

Patients can obtain advice or information related to their care or appointment reminders by electronic means, where the doctor determines that a face-to-face consultation is unnecessary. Electronic communication includes: email, fax, and SMS. Practice staff and doctors determine how they communicate electronically with clients, both receiving and sending messages. All significant electronic contact with patients is recorded in the client health records. Patients can request our written policy on receiving and returning electronic communication.

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.

Billing Policy

Private fees apply for all consultations and payment is due on the day of your appointment.

Pensioners and DVA gold card holder will remain to be bulk billed for consultations only.

Appointment Cancellations

If you fail to attend an appointment without notifying the clinic, you will incur a "no-show" fee.

Lodging a privacy related complaint

We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure. You should express any privacy concerns in writing to:

Mailing address: The Manager, Cambourne Clinic, 196a Liebig Street, Warrnambool VIC 3280
Email: manager@cambourneclinic.com.au

Phone: 03 5261 4146

We will acknowledge your complaint within 7 days and respond within 30 days.

You may also contact the OAIC. Generally the OAIC will require you to give them time to respond, before they will investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 336 002.

Emails

Cambourne Clinic uses an email disclaimer notice on outgoing emails that are affiliated with the Health Service. The disclaimer is as follows:

PRIVILEGED – PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL

This email and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the use of the addressee(s) and may contain information which is confidential or privileged. If you receive this email and you are not the addressee or responsible for delivery of the email to the addressee(s), please disregard the contents of the email, delete the mail and notify the author immediately.

Website Privacy & Security

The Cambourne Clinic website is complying with the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000.

We endeavour to ensure our website is as secure as possible; however, users need to be aware that the World Wide Web is not a secure medium. Cambourne Clinic takes no liability for any interference or damage to a user’s computer system, software or data occurring in connection with this website. We strongly recommend user’s take appropriate measures to ensure their computer is protected against third party interference whilst on the web.

External links to other websites

This site may contain links to external websites which Cambourne Clinic has added to improve the service we offer and expand upon the information readily available to you. Once a user decides to click on a link and navigate away from the Cambourne Clinic website the privacy policy noted here is no longer in effect. Users are recommended to familiarise themselves with the privacy policies on these websites once they browse and interact with them. Recommendations or views purported on these websites are not necessarily reflective of those of Cambourne Clinic.

Website Privacy Policy Statement

We do not collect or use any personal information on visitors to our website, through the use of “cookies” or other software or hardware techniques. We may use Google Analytics to track website hits and other information when you access our website such as pages viewed, date and time visited etc. This information is used for statistical and website development purposes only. If you use our online contact form your contact details may be used for us to contact you in return. Secure transmissions are not supported and if personal information is transmitted to the clinic via our email or our online contact form the practice cannot guarantee security of these transactions.

Policy review statement

This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly, and any legislative changes will be updated as they occur and is available for review on at cambourneclinic.com.au/policy at any time.

Cambourne clinic privacy policy is posted on the website and available for download. The website is continually monitored to ensure it is kept current and up to date. It contains the minimum information required on the Cambourne Clinic information sheet. Any changes to the Cambourne Clinic information sheet are also reflected on the website.

Current at 24.10.2023