Privacy Policy

The clinicians and staff at Hunter Clinical Services are bound by the legal requirements of the Australia Privacy Principles (APPs) contained in the Privacy Act 1988 and the applicable Health Privacy Principles in the Health Records Act.

This Privacy Policy is to provide information on how your Personal Information is collected and used by Hunter Clinical Services, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.

Collection

We collect Personal Information for the primary purpose of communicating with you, making appointments, and delivering our services to you. We will only collect information that is necessary for clinical, legal, and administrative functions of Hunter Clinical Services. When we collect Personal Information, we will explain to you why we are collecting the information and how we plan to use it.

Personal Information can be obtained:

from you – when you register an enquiry, schedule an appointment, or attend our practice
when we receive enquiries via email or telephone
from a third party referrer and service providers – when they refer us to deliver services, provide information to us, or invoice us provision of our services
when we receive enquiries through the Hunter Clinical Services website.
when our partner website Cliniko is used to submit information or to book appointments.

Personal Information we collect

The information we may collect about you includes your:
names, gender and preferred pronouns, date of birth, addresses, contact details
e-mail address, phone number
Health Fund Details and Medicare number
healthcare identifiers

You have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless it is impracticable for us to do so or unless we are required or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.

Consent

By engaging us via phone or email, registering your details on our website, completing a client consent form or presenting to our clinics (face to face or telehealth) for services, you consent to our team (clinical and administrative staff) collecting, using and disclosing your personal information (including Health Information) for the purposes specified in this Privacy Policy.

Third Parties

Wherever practical to do so, we will collect your Personal Information only from you. However, in some circumstances we may be provided with information by third parties. In such a case we will take reasonable steps to ensure that you are made aware of the information provided to us by the third party.

We will not disclose, sell, share or trade your Personal Information to any third parties unless we first receive your consent.

We may provide health Information to other health service providers, such as your general practitioner or specialist medical practitioners. We will only supply this information with your consent.

Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

We will only disclose personal information to third parties with your consent in accordance with this Privacy Policy or if permitted or authorised to do so by law.

All personal information gathered by Hunter Clinical Services clinicians during delivery of services to you will remain confidential and secure, except where:

Failure to disclose the information would place you or another person at serious and imminent risk;
There is an obligation to disclose information under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW);
There is an obligation to disclose information due to a breach of ethical conduct by a registered Health Professional;
It is subpoenaed by court;
It is used in relation to defending Hunter Clinical Services in legal proceedings or for obtaining advice in respect of any potential legal proceedings;
De-identified information is discussed as part of an approved professional supervision process;
Your prior approval has been obtained to:
- Provide a written report to another professional or agency (e.g. Other clinician, GP, Medical Specialist);
- Discuss the material with another person, (e.g. a family member, employer, rehabilitation coordinator);
If disclosure is otherwise required or authorised by law;
Engagement of a Debt Collection Agency is required to recover outstanding debt.
Necessary for the administrative and billing purposes.

Security of Personal Information

We will take all reasonable steps to ensure that your Personal Information is securely stored in a manner that protects it from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure.

It is important to us that your Personal Information is up to date. We will take reasonable steps to make sure that your Personal Information is accurate, complete, and up to date. If you find that the information we have is not up to date or is inaccurate, please advise us as soon as practicable so we can update our records.

When your Personal Information is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was obtained, we will take reasonable steps to destroy or permanently de-identify your Personal Information. However, Personal Information stored in clinical files will be kept by us for a minimum of 7 years as required by law.

Access to Personal Information

You will be able to access personal information held by Hunter Clinical Services upon request, and to update and/or correct it, subject to certain exceptions.

If you wish to access your Personal Information, please contact us in writing. There may be a fee for the administrative costs of retrieving and providing you with the information.

Hunter Clinical Services may occasionally need to deny access to information in accordance with the exemptions contained in the Act., for example, if disclosure may cause a serious threat to your health or safety. We will always tell you why access is denied and the options you have to respond to our decision.

In order to protect your Personal Information, we may require identification from you before releasing the requested information.

Cookies, web beacons and analytics

When you interact with our Website, we, or our third-party service providers, may use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to track site visitor activity and collect site data. Examples of information that we may collect include technical information such as your computer’s IP address and your browser type, and information about your visit such as the products you viewed or searched for, the country you are in, what you clicked on and what links you visited to get to or from our site. This information is used in an aggregated manner to analyse how people use our site, so that we can improve our service. If we identify you with this information, any use or disclosure of that information will be in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Third-party websites

At times, our Site may contain links to other, third-party websites. Any access to and use of such linked websites is not governed by this Privacy Policy, but, instead, is governed by the privacy policies of those third-party websites. We are not responsible for the information practices of such third-party websites.

Transfer

If there is a sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, or liquidation of Hunter Clinical Services Pty Ltd then we may transfer or assign personal information collected to one or more relevant third parties. Subject to your consent, we may also transfer any of your Health Information we hold to another clinician involved in your care for the purpose of continuing your care.

Electronic Scribe and Note-Taking Tools

Hunter Clinical Services may use secure electronic scribe tools to assist clinicians with accurate and timely note-taking during sessions. These tools operate in line with Australian Privacy Principles and health record legislation, ensuring all client information remains confidential. Any temporary audio or text recordings created are used solely for clinical documentation purposes and are permanently deleted once the session notes have been finalised. Clients may request further information about this process or choose not to have an electronic scribe used during their sessions if they prefer.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may at our sole discretion change or amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any updated versions of this Privacy Policy will be posted on our website.

This Privacy Policy forms part of the agreement between you and us (either in your capacity as a client or a third-party service provider). Your continued use of any of our website and our services constitutes your acceptance and understanding of the Privacy Policy in effect at the time of your use.

If we make any changes to this Privacy Policy that materially affect our practices with regard to the Personal Information we have previously collected from you, we will endeavour to provide you with notice in advance of such change by highlighting the change on the Site, or where practical, by emailing you. If you do not agree with the terms of this Privacy Policy you must inform us immediately prior to any further receipt of our services.

Enquiries

If you have any queries, concerns or complaints about our Privacy Policy, please contact us via email on hello@hunterclinicalservices.com.au