Privacy Policy

OccuMED respects individuals’ rights to privacy and abide by the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Act) and operate within the Guidelines set out by the Australian Privacy Principles, which cover areas including the collection, use, disclosure, quality and security of personal information.

What is your personal information?

When used in this privacy policy, the term “personal information” has the meaning given to it in the Act. In general terms, it is any information that can be used to personally identify you. This may include your name, contact details (address, telephone number, email address), job or occupation.

OccuMED’s privacy policy covers the personal information provided to us by people who use our services or otherwise.

What personal information do we collect and hold?

OccuMED may collect the following types of personal information:

your name, address and telephone number;
your age or date of birth;
your ethnic background;
your job, occupation or profession;
information relevant to your medical care, including but not limited to your previous and current medical history and your family medical history (where clinically relevant);
current medication, drugs or treatments used by you;
contact details of any health service provider or medical specialist to whom you’ve been referred, copies of any referral letters; reports; and
any additional information relating to you that you provide to us directly through our representatives, medical or allied health professionals providing services at any of our Clinics or network of third party providers or otherwise.

How do we collect your personal information?

Where practicable, OccuMED collects your personal information directly from you and in different forms including but not limited to:

registration or patient information forms;
as disclosed by you during the course of a consultation at our Clinics or third party network providers;
through your access and use of our website or web based online questionnaire.

We may also collect personal information from third parties including:

information provided with your consent, and on your behalf;
from a health service provider who refers you to medical practitioners or allied health professionals providing services at our Clinics or third party network providers;
from referred health service providers;
from your existing or prospective employer; or
from third party bodies, such as government entities including law enforcement agencies.

For what purposes do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?

OccuMED collects, holds, uses and discloses your personal information for the following purposes:

to provide medical services and treatment to you, and to enable you to be attended by medical practitioners or other allied health professionals at our medical clinics or network of third party clinics;
for inclusion in a recall register to be advised of follow up visits and medical updates;
for record management for administrative and billing purposes;
to process and respond to any complaint made by you;
to comply with any law, rule, regulation in co-operation with governmental authority;
for reporting purposes in the case of a work-related consultation or service (to your existing or prospective employer; their authorised representatives and insurer);
to meet obligations of notification to our medical defence organisations or insurers.

We will not sell, share or disclose your personal information in any way, other than as described in this Privacy Policy or as permitted under the Act.

To whom may we disclose your information?

We may disclose your personal information to:

any organisation or person for any authorised purpose with your express consent;
your existing or prospective employer, their authorised representatives and their insurer in the case of a work-related consultation or service;
our employees, contractors or service providers for the purposes of operation of our business including contract medical and allied health professionals and network of third party providers who provide medical services to you; or otherwise enable us to provide products and services to you including, without limitation, web hosting providers, IT systems administrators, professional advisors and consultants and debt collectors;
suppliers and other third parties with whom we have commercial relationships, for business, marketing, and related purposes.

How can you access and correct your personal information?

You may request access to any personal information we hold about you at any time by contacting us via email. Such requests should be made to [email protected]. You may be requested to provide a form of identification prior to any release of information.

Email is the preferred method by OccuMED to provide the information requested. We may charge you a fee to cover any reasonable administrative and related costs in providing the information to you and will advise you accordingly.

Where we are unable to grant you access to the personal information we hold; we will provide written reasons for such refusal and will only do so in accordance with our rights and obligations under the Act (e.g. where it would breach the privacy or confidentiality of other parties).

What is the process for complaining about a breach of privacy?

Complaints about breach of privacy should be addressed to [email protected]. OccuMED Privacy Officer will investigate and deal with complaints and will endeavour to resolve your complaint in a timely and appropriate manner.

Security

Reasonable steps are taken by OccuMED to ensure your personal information is protected from misuse, loss and/or unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. Your information is held in either electronic or hard copy form, with personal information either destroyed or de-identified when no longer required.

However, OccuMED provides no assurance regarding the security of information or communication transmitted online via the internet. Accordingly, any personal information or other information which you choose to transmit to OccuMED via online methods is undertaken your own risk.

Changes to our privacy policy

OccuMED will update and communicate changes to its privacy policy via the OccuMED website.