Belgrave Medical Clinic Privacy Statement
Who can I contact about this policy?
For enquiries concerning this policy, you can contact our Practice Principal Dr Dennis Gration on 9757 8000.
Consent
When you register as a patient of this practice, you provide consent for the General Practitioners and practice staff to access and use your personal information to facilitate the delivery of healthcare. Access to your personal information is restricted to practice team members who require it for your care. If we ever use your personal information for purposes other than outlined in this document, we will obtain additional consent from you.
It is important to us that as our patient, you understand why we collect and use your personal information.
By acknowledging this Privacy Policy you consent to us collecting, holding, using, retaining and disclosing your personal information in the manners described in this document.
Collection of Information
The practice collects, uses, stores, and shares your personal information primarily to manage your health safely and effectively. This includes providing healthcare services, managing medical records, and ensuring accurate billing and payments. Additionally, we may utilise your information for internal quality and safety improvement processes such as practice audits, accreditation purposes, and staff training to maintain high-quality service standards.
The information we will collect about you includes your:
- names, date of birth, addresses, contact details
- medical information including medical history, medicines, allergies, and adverse reactions immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors
- Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes
- healthcare identifier numbers
The practice may collect your personal information in several different ways:
When you make your first appointment, the practice team will collect your personal and demographic information via your New Patient Registration Form.
We may also collect your personal information when you telephone us, or make an online appointment.
In some circumstances, personal information may also be collected from other sources, including:
- Your guardian or responsible person.
- Other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services, pathology and diagnostic imaging services.
- Your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (if relevant).
- Human Services, Digital Health Services such as Immunisation Register, National Cancer Screening Register.
- While providing medical services, further personal information may be collected via:
- electronic prescribing
- My Health Record
We will always comply with privacy obligations when collecting personal information from third-party sources. This includes ensuring transparency with patients, obtaining necessary consents, maintaining data accuracy, securing the information, and using it only for specified purposes.
Sharing your information
We sometimes share your personal information:
- with third parties for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies or information technology providers – these third parties are required to comply with the Australian Privacy Principals and this policy
- with other healthcare providers (e.g. In referral letters)
- when it is required or authorised by law (e.g. court subpoenas)
- 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
- to establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim
- for the purpose of confidential dispute resolution process
- When it is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (e.g. some diseases require mandatory notification)
- When it is provision of medical services, through electronic prescribing, My Health Record, Dept. Human Services, Digital Health Services such as Immunisation Register, National Cancer Screening Register.
Only people who need to access your personal information will be able to do so. Other than providing medical services or as otherwise described in this policy, the practice will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.
Dealing with us anonymously
You can deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless it is impracticable for us to do so or unless we are required or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.
Improving our services
The practice may use your personal information to improve the quality of the services offered to patients through research, analysis of patient data for quality improvement and for training activities with the practice team.
We may share de-identified data to other organisations for the purpose of improving population health outcomes. All shared data are de-identified, meaning that individuals cannot be identified from the information provided. This information is handled and stored securely in accordance with applicable privacy and data protection standards.
At times, general practices are approached by research teams to recruit eligible patients into specific studies which require access to identifiable information. You may be approached by a member of our practice team to participate in research. Researchers will not approach you directly without your express consent having been provided to the practice. If you provide consent, you would then receive specific information on the research project and how your personal health information will be used, at which point you can decide to participate or not participate in the research project.
Our automated services including AI Scribes
Document automation is where systems use existing data to generate electronic documents relating to medical conditions and healthcare.
The practice uses document automation technologies to create documents such as referrals, which are sent to other healthcare providers. These documents contain only your relevant medical information.
These document automation technologies are used through secure medical software Medical Director, Pracsoft and Doctors Control Panel.
All users of the medical software have their own unique user credentials and password and can only access information that is relevant to their role in the practice team.
The practice complies with the Australian privacy legislation and the Australian Privacy Principals to protect your information.
All data, both electronic and paper are stored and managed in accordance with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioner’s Standards for General Practice.
Your GP may use an AI consultation scribe tool to assist them to take notes during your consultation, this will only be used with your prior consent. The AI scribe uses an audio recording of your consultation to generate a clinical note for your health record. The audio file is destroyed once the transcription is complete.
Storing and protecting your information
Your personal information may be stored and held in various forms. These include:
- Electronic Records
- Minimal Paper Records
- Visual Records such as X-Rays, CT scans, and photos
- Computerised records are retained indefinitely in electronic format
- Paper Based Medical Records prior to 2005 for patients who had not reached the age of 25 years or for a minimum of 7 years from the time of last contact, whichever was the longer, were retained by scanning and electronically stored. Other Paper Based Medical Records that were no longer required to be kept were destroyed according to strict protocols.
- Our practice has CCTV in our carparks and shared spaces for security and your safety, these spaces exclude all consulting rooms, treatment rooms and rest rooms. These images can only be accessed by our Privacy Officer.
The practice stores and sends all personal information securely. This is via electronic formats, encrypted email and in protected information systems in a secure password protected environment.
All Staff, Students and Contractors are required to sign confidentiality agreements.
Request to access your information
Patients have the right to request access to, and correction of, their personal information held by the practice.
The practice acknowledges that patients may wish to access their medical records. Request for access or correction can be made:
- In person during your GP consultation, or
- By submitting a signed written request addressed to the practice.
The practice can provide a health summary at no cost. Should a patient request additional information or a complete copy of their medical record, and administration fee may apply to cover the costs of processing and providing this information.
The practice will respond to all requests for access to, or correction of personal information within 28 days of receipt.
The practice will take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information held is accurate, complete, and up to date. This includes updating details such as phone number, address, Medicare or Health Care Card information when advised by the patient.
Patients may be asked to verify that their personal information held by the practice is correct and current. Requests to update or correct information can be made by speaking with our reception team.
Our complaint handling process
If you are unhappy about any aspect of the care you receive from this practice, we are keen to know about it. Please discuss your concerns with your GP or a member of our Governance Team, or provide written feedback via our Patient Feedback box located at Reception. You may remain anonymous if you wish.
We value feedback and appreciate the opportunity to resolve concerns and where possible, improve our service.
However, if you do not feel we have resolved your issue you may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner who will require you to give them time to respond before they investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) on 1300 363 992.
Our privacy policy is regularly reviewed to ensure compliance with current obligations.
If any changes are made, they will be reflected on the website. Please contact our friendly reception team with any further questions or contact us at Belgrave Medical Clinic 1575 Burwood Hwy Tecoma Victoria 3160 or 03 9757 8000.
Contacting our Practice
Our reception staff are available by telephone during our business hours to assist you. This is the most reliable and secure method of communication with our Practice. For this reason, we do not accept emails from patients as a means of contacting the Practice team.
We understand there may be times when you wish to speak directly with your GP or request a call back. To help manage their workload and avoid delays in patient care, we encourage you to book an appointment—either in person or via telehealth—for any medical discussions or requests.
If no suitable appointment time is available, our reception team can triage your concern and seek guidance from your doctor on the most appropriate way to provide care.