You can download the Privacy Policy PDF here.

 

1. Overview and purpose

Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia respects your rights to privacy and takes our privacy obligations seriously. We comply with the Australian Privacy Principles, found under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act).

We are a medical services administration business which manages medical administration for independent Anaesthetists and as part of that medical administration, any personal information we collect is for the primary purpose of assisting the Anaesthetist to run their practice and so we may invoice you for their services.

Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia collects personal and healthcare information from you, your Anaesthetist or your Surgeon, necessary for us to register you as a patient of the Anaesthetist and to book in your procedure. We will usually collect your name, DOB, address, phone number, email, private health insurance & medicare details, procedure date and procedure type. In an emergency situation, your Anaesthetist may collect this information after the emergency. Often your personal and health information remains at the hospital. We will usually receive limited information necessary to invoice you for the Anaesthetist’s services.

 

This privacy policy explains:

  • how we manage your personal information including health information), including the collection, use, disclosure, quality and security of your personal information.
  • the kinds of information we collect and how that information is held;
  • the purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information;
  • how you can access your personal information and how you can request to correct such information; and
  • how you can complain about a breach of your privacy and how we will handle your complaint.

If you have any queries, concerns or feedback regarding our Privacy Policy, please do not hesitate to contact us:

Kathryn Diverall
Ph: (07) 3831 0383
Email: bookings@wta.com.au
Post: PO Box 107, Spring Hill, QLD, 4000

 

In this Privacy Policy, we use the terms:

“Personal information” as defined in the Privacy Act. This means:

“information or an opinion about an identified individual, or an individual who is reasonably identifiable:

  • whether the information or opinion is true or not; and
  • whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not”;

“Health information” as defined in the Privacy Act. This is a subset of “personal information” and means information or an opinion about:

  • the health or a disability (at any time) of an individual;
  • an individual’s expressed wishes about the future provision of health services to him or her; or
  • a health service provided or to be provided to an individual.

Personal information also includes “sensitive information” which is information such as your race, religion, political opinions, sexual preferences and/or “health information”. Information which is “sensitive information” attracts a higher privacy standard under the Privacy Act and is subject to additional mechanisms for your protection.

“We”, “Us”, “Our”, shall mean CCM Company Pty Ltd T/As Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia. We are a medical administration services business. We provide management & administrative services to independent Anaesthetists who run their own independent practice.

 

2. Collection of personal information

Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia collects information which is necessary to register you as a patient, to book in your procedure and to invoice you and provide other administration services to your Anaesthetist.

We will usually collect your name, DOB, address, phone number, email, private health insurance & medicare details, procedure date and procedure type, and any other information which is necessary to assist your Anaesthetist to provide appropriate care.

Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia will collect your personal information directly from you, your Surgeon or your Anaesthetist, including from patient forms, or from another health service provider. Sometimes we need to collect information about you from third parties, such as relatives and friends and private health insurers.

We will only collect information from third parties where:

  • you have consented to such collection; or
  • such collection is necessary to enable us to assist your Anaesthetist to provide you with appropriate anaesthetic services (such as emergency medical treatment or where your health is at risk); or
  • such collection is reasonably necessary to enable us to appropriately manage and conduct our business; and
  • it is legally permissible for us to do.

3. How we use your personal information

Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia only uses your personal information to enable us to appropriately manage and conduct our business, unless:

  • there is a secondary purpose which directly relates to the primary purpose, and you would reasonably expect, or Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia has informed you, that your information will be used for that secondary purpose, or you have given your consent for your personal information to be used for a secondary purpose;
  • the disclosure of your information is necessary for the enforcement of criminal law or a law imposing a penalty or sanction, or for the protection of public revenue;
  • the disclosure of your information will prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to somebody’s life or health; or,
  • Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia is required or authorised by law to disclose your information for another purpose.

For example, Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia uses your personal information:

  • to assist your Anaesthetist to provide anaesthetic  services to you;
  • to appropriately manage our practice, such as conducting audits and undertaking accreditation processes, manage billings and training staff;
  • effectively communicate with third parties, including private health insurers, Medicare Australia and other government departments.

4. Disclosing your personal information

Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia discloses your personal information to our employees, contractors and service providers in order for your Anaesthetist to provide you services and to allow us to manage our business. We will also disclose your personal information to healthcare professionals directly involved in your treatment. Where your medical records are required in the case of a medical emergency, we will provide these to the relevant medical professional without waiting for your consent, where we believe this is in your interests.

Your personal information may also be provided to third parties if we are legally obliged to do so by a court subpoena, statutory authority, search warrant, coronial summons or to defend a legal action.

We may provide your personal information to third parties involved in your care, such as:

  • your parents, children, relatives and close friends, guardians or a person exercising a power of attorney or enduring power of attorney. Please advise us if it is your wish no third party as stated is to have access to your personal information;
  • government departments and agencies, such as Defence or Department of Veterans Affairs, or departments responsible for health, aged care and disability where we are required to do so;
  • private health insurers and Medicare Australia; and
  • anyone authorised by you to receive your personal information.

5. Overseas recipients

Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia does not engage with any overseas entities or persons where your personal information will be transferred, stored or disclosed. Should we wish to transfer your personal information overseas, we will ask for your consent before we do so.

6. Data storage, quality and security

We strive to maintain the reliability, accuracy, completeness and currency of the personal information we hold and to protect its privacy and security. All personal information we collect is stored electronically and protected from unauthorised access, misuse, interference, loss, modification or disclosure. Some of the steps we take to ensure your personal information is secure include:

  • we maintain physical security over our  data and premises;
  • our staff are trained on privacy;
  • our IT security includes virus controls, firewalls, encryption, multi-site backup and user identifiers and passwords to control access to computer systems where your information is stored and other IT security measures;
  • we have a clean desk policy and any physical records are scanned or entered into our IT system and then securely destroyed; and
  • we use Australian hosted data centre to store and back-up our data. This is managed by professional IT consultants.

7. Destroying your personal information

It is likely your medical records held by us contain sensitive information. We are required to abide by relevant legislation in the retention and disposal of your medical records.

Wickham Terrace Anaesthesia is an electronic record practice, any hard-copy records that come into the practice are scanned then shredded. All electronic records are retained indefinitely as you may require your file at a later time. After a period of time your medical record will become inactive but nothing will be destroyed.

8. Accessing and amending your personal information

We encourage you to contact us if you have a query regarding your personal information. You may request an amendment to your personal information if you consider that it contains inaccurate, incorrect or incomplete information.

You have a right to request access to any information we hold about you. If you make a request to access personal information that you are entitled to access, we will provide you suitable means of accessing it. We will not charge you for making the request. In circumstances where you request we provide a copy of your personal information to you, we may charge you a fee to cover our reasonable costs for complying with the request for access.

There may be instances where we cannot grant you access to some of the information we hold. For example, we may need to refuse access if granting access would interfere with the privacy of others.  If that is the case, we will provide you with a written explanation of those reasons.

You can contact us about any privacy issues as follows:

Kathryn Diverall
Ph: (07) 3831 0383
Email: bookings@wta.com.au
Post: PO Box 107, Spring Hill, QLD, 4000

9. Complaints

If you have a complaint about how we have dealt with your personal information or believe we have breached your privacy, please contact us on the details below so that we may investigate it. We will deal with your complaint fairly and confidentially.  On receipt of your complaint we will contact you within 10 business days to confirm what investigation action will occur. We will then communicate the outcome to you in writing and invite a response to our conclusion about the complaint. If we receive a response from you, we will also assess it and advise if we have changed our view.

If you are unsatisfied with our response, you may make refer the complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (http://www.oaic.gov.au/)

Kathryn Diverall
Ph: (07) 3831 0383
Email: bookings@wta.com.au
Post: 3/557 Gregory Terrace, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006

10. Review and change to Privacy Policy

We may alter this Privacy Policy following any legislative change or upon a review of our information handling processes.

The current version of our updated Privacy Policy is available from: