Privacy Policy

Privacy & Access Policy

This privacy policy is to provide information to you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties. This information is displayed in our reception area, available as a laminated document at reception, and is available on our website.

Use of your personal information

Williamstown GP Group collects and holds personal health information about you. The main reason we collect information from you is so that we may provide you with the best possible healthcare. It enables us to properly assess, diagnose and treat your health care needs. The information we may ask you is personal. Without this information we may be restricted in our capacity to provide you with the standard of medical care that you expect. All members of the professional team involved in your care have access to your personal information. 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.

Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly to you without your consent. If you do consent, you may opt out of direct marketing at any time by notifying our practice in writing.

This means we may use and disclose the information you provide in the following ways:

Disclosure to others involved in your health care, including doctors and specialists outside this practice who may become involved in treating you, pathology services, radiology services and in emergency situations. This may occur through referral to other doctors or specialists, or for medical tests and in the reports or results returned to us following the referrals.
By law, doctors are sometimes required to disclose information for public interest reasons e.g. mandatory reporting of communicable diseases or through court subpoenas.
During the course of providing medical services, on medical registers to improve community health (for example, Diabetes register, Pap Smear register, MyHealth Record).
Administrative purposes in running our medical practice, including our insurer or medical indemnity provider, and quality assurance and accreditation bodies.
Billing purposes, including providing information to Medicare Australia and other organisations responsible for the financial aspects of your care.
For conducting medical research. You will be informed when such activities are being conducted and your involvement will only take place if you provide express signed consent for each program where identified information is required.
Assisting with training and education of other health professionals. You will be informed when such activities are being conducted and your involvement will only take place if you express consent to your medical practitioner for each program.
To assist in locating a missing person.
To establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim or for the purpose of confidential dispute resolution process.

What personal information do we collect?

The information we will collect about you includes:

Names, dates of birth, addresses and contact details
Medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors.
Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes
Healthcare Identifiers

Our practice will collect your personal information:

When you make your first appointment our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration
During the course of providing medical services we may collect further personal information
Information can also be collected through MyHealth record system via the Shared Health Summary and Event Summary
We may 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. This may happen 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, pathology and radiology services, Medicare or the Department of Veteran Affairs.

Information Quality

Our goal is to ensure that your information is accurate, complete and up to date. To assist us with this, please contact us if any of the details you have provided change. Further, if you believe that the information we have about you is not accurate, complete or up to date, contact us and we will use all reasonable efforts to correct the information.

Data Security

The storage, use and, where necessary, the transfer of personal health information will be undertaken in a secure manner that protects patient privacy. We will take all reasonable steps to protect the security of the personal information that we hold. This includes appropriate measures to protect electronic materials stored and generated in hard copy. It is necessary for medical practices to keep patient information after a patient’s last attendance for as long as required by the law or is prudent, having regard to administration requirements. All staff are required to sign confidentiality agreements that protect your privacy and confidentiality.

Privacy and our website

Your contact information provided when you communicate with us via our website www.williamstowngpgroup.com.au is collected to enable us to respond to you. Our practice offers an online appointment booking service using a third party provider – HotDoc. All terms and conditions are provided when you choose to use this service.

What happens if you choose not to provide the information?

You are not obliged to provide us your personal information. However, if you choose not to provide us with your personal details such as name, date of birth and contact information, we may not be able to provide you with the full range of our services.

Treatment of Children

The rights of children to the privacy of their health information, based on the professional judgement of the doctor and consistent with law, may restrict access to the child’s information by parents or guardians.

Anonymity and Pseudonymity

Under the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym in certain circumstances. However, this may not always be practicable — for example, where it is necessary to identify you to provide safe clinical care, process a Medicare claim, or maintain an accurate health record. Please speak with our reception team if you wish to discuss this.

Complaints

If you would like to raise a concern about our care or services, please contact our Practice Manager in the first instance:
Williamstown GP Group
Suite 2, 81 Ferguson Street, Williamstown VIC 3016
Tel: (03) 9397 7300 or (03) 9397 1155
Email: reception@williamstowngpgroup.com.au

All complaints will be acknowledged promptly and managed fairly and confidentially. A privacy complaint relates to any concern or dispute that you have with our privacy practices as it relates to your personal information. This could include matters such as how personal information is collected, stored and used, disclosed or how access is provided. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of our handling of your complaint, you may contact the Health Complaints Commissioner (Victoria) on Freecall 1800 136 066, or the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at www.oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992 for complaints relating to federal privacy legislation.

Access to Health Records

If you would like access to, or a copy of your information (including health information), please complete the Request for access to health record form which is available from Reception. To obtain access to your information you will have to provide proof of your identity. This is necessary to ensure personal information is provided only to correct and authorised individuals.

Costs and charges

There is no fee to lodge a request for access. Williamstown GP Group may charge a reasonable fee to cover administrative costs such as photocopying. There are limits to the fees we can charge and these are prescribed in the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic). These charges cannot be claimed on Medicare of Health Funds.

Policy Review

This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur. Updated policies are version controlled and include the date of review.

Reviewed by: Dr Maryam Hosseini/ Medical Director

Version 2, Effective Date: 01.07.2026
Next Review Date: 01.07.2028