St Andrew’s Toowoomba Hospital is bound by the National Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 regarding how the hospital handles your personal information.
The Privacy Statement sets out in brief how St Andrew’s Toowoomba Hospital will collect, use, disclose and store your personal information.
The hospital will collect your personal information for the purpose of providing you with health care and directly related purposes. For example, St Andrew’s Toowoomba Hospital may collect, use or disclose personal information:
- for use by a multidisciplinary treating team;
- to liaise with health professionals, Medicare or your health fund;
- in an emergency where your life is at risk and you cannot consent;
- to manage our hospital, including processes relating to risk management, quality assurance and accreditation activities;
- for the education of health care workers;
- to maintain medical records as required under our policies and by law; or
- for other purposes required or permitted by law.
Disclosing information may involve us sharing your personal information with third parties. For example, we may outsource the conduct of patient satisfaction surveys to a contractor who may write to you seeking feedback about your experience with St Andrew’s Toowoomba Hospital. Where we outsource services we ensure that third parties have obligations under their contracts with the hospital to comply with all laws relating to the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information.
St Andrew’s Toowoomba Hospital will usually collect your personal information directly from you, but sometimes may need to collect it from someone else (for example, a relative or another health service provider). We will only do this if you have consented or where your life is at risk and we need to provide emergency treatment.
We will not use or disclose your personal information to any other persons or organisations for any other purpose unless:
- you have consented;
- the use or disclosure is for a purpose directly related to providing you with health care and you would expect us to use or disclose your personal information in this way;
- we have told you that we will disclose your personal information to other organisations or persons; or
- we are permitted or required to do so by law.
You have the right to access your personal information in your health record. You can also request an amendment to your health record should you believe that it contains inaccurate information.
Access to quality health care is an important priority for all Australians. It is also important that individuals’ privacy is respected during the provision of health care and treatment services. Being reassured about privacy gives consumers the confidence to access the health services they need.