Hillcrest Health Centre is committed to providing quality health care for its patients. As a fundamental part of this commitment principals and staff of the practice, recognise the importance of ensuring that our patients are fully informed and involved in their health care.
Hillcrest Health Centre is, as a health provider in the private sector, bound by the National Privacy Principles. These principles set the standards by which we handle personal information collected from our patients. A copy of these Principles is available for inspection at the reception desk.
As a part of our commitment to providing quality health care it is necessary for us to maintain files pertaining to your health. The files contain the following types of information:
- Personal details (your name, address, date of birth, Medicare number);
- your medical history;
- Notes made during the course of medical consultations;
- Referrals to other health service providers;
- Results and reports received from other health service providers.
The information held about you is provided by you or arises as a consequence of information provided by you.
Your medical file is handled with the utmost respect for your privacy. The file will be accessed by your medical practitioner, and when necessary, for example in the absence of usual medical practitioner, by other medical practitioners in the practice. It may also be necessary for our staff to handle your file from time to time to address the administrative requirements of running a medical practice. Our staffs are bound by strict confidentiality requirements as a condition of employment regarding your medical records. Ordinarily we will not release the contents of your medical file without your consent. However, we advise that there may be occasions where we will be required to release the details of your file irrespective of whether your consent to the disclosure of the information is given. This will occur where the law requires disclosure, such as pursuant to a subpoena. We advise that as a patient of this practice you have rights of access to any information we hold concerning you. Should you wish to access this information please ask at reception for further information