Privacy Policy

Ashford Dermatology Privacy Policy

Introduction

Ashford Dermatology is a specialist dermatology practice with our medical services provided by our specialist dermatologists (we, us and our).

In the course of our practice, we collect personal information about you, our patient, which includes your health information, to be able to provide you with our medical services and for other directly related purposes.

This privacy policy provides you with information about how we collect, store, use and disclose your personal information.

Your consent

When you complete a patient registration form you consent to our nursing and administrative staff and specialist dermatologists collecting, storing, using and disclosing your information for the purposes of providing you with our medical services and for other directly related purposes.

We may from time to time seek your specific consent to use your personal information for other purposes. For example, to take a photograph of your skin condition for the purposes of medical research, training or education.

Personal information we collect

We collect information that we need to provide you with medical care and treatment and to manage our practice.

The information we collect about you includes:

your name, date of birth, gender and contact details, such as your email, telephone number and address;
your health information and other sensitive information including your family, social and medical history, medications, allergies and immunisations, photographs of your skin condition;
details of other health professionals involved in your care, such as your general practitioner (GP) and other health care providers;
your Medicare number, health care identifiers, other government-related identifiers (such as veteran affairs or pension numbers) and details about your health fund; and
your bank account details and credit card information.

Some of the personal information we request from you may be about other people. We will only request that information where it is part of your family, social or medical history and only when we require that information to provide you with our medical services.

How we collect and hold your personal information

We collect your personal information in a number of ways. Generally, we will collect personal information directly from you when you complete our patient registration form, use our website or contact us (including when you call us to make an appointment or when you write to us). We also collect personal information during the course of providing you with our medical services.

We may also collect your personal information from other sources where it is not practical or reasonable to collect it from you directly. This includes from:

your GP and other health care providers involved in your health care such as specialists, pathologists, diagnostic imaging service providers and hospitals;
a person responsible for you, such as your guardian; and
from other people, record systems or institutions where authorised by law or where you authorise us to do so (such as from Medicare).

We hold your personal information (including your health information) electronically, in our computer medical system records, as well as in hand written records.

You have no obligation to give us any information. However, if you choose not to provide certain information, we may not be able to provide you with our medical services or those medical services that we do provide may be not be appropriate for your treatment or care.

Dealing with us anonymously

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

It is generally impracticable for us to deal with you anonymously as it is important to our practice to ensure continuity in patient care and to maintain accurate patient records. We rely on you identifying yourself accurately to ensure that we have accurate and unique records for each patient. It is also impracticable to deal with you anonymously if you wish to claim any Medicare benefits as we require your Medicare details to do so. If you would like us to consider your request to deal with us anonymously, please contact us using our contact details below to discuss.

How we use and disclose the personal information we collect

We will use and disclose your personal information (including your health information) to provide you with medical care and treatment and other directly related purposes, including:

to provide you with our medical services;
to communicate with you about your medical care and treatment;
to disclose relevant information to others involved in your health care, including to your GP and other health care providers involved in your health care such as specialists, pathologists, diagnostic imaging service providers and hospitals;
to undertake administrative activities related to running our practice, including processing your payment for our services, pursuing unpaid accounts and complying with Medicare and health fund requirements.

We may also use and disclose your personal information (including your health information) where authorised or required by law, including where we have mandatory reporting obligations (eg. to notify cases of certain infections or under child protection laws) and to Medicare about your use of our medical services.

Where you give us your consent to do so, we may also use and disclose your personal information (including your health information):

to contact you to seek your consent to use your personal information for another purpose (eg. medical research, teaching and publication);
to disclose your information other specialists in the practice, consultants and other Registrars attached to our practice for the purposes of training and teaching;
for the purposes of research and quality assurance activities to improve individual and community health care activities.

Accessing and updating your personal information

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you, subject to certain exceptions. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please send your request to us using the contact details below. We may apply an administrative charge for providing access to your personal information in response to your request.

We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date. For this purpose, our staff may ask you to confirm that your contact details are correct when you attend your consultation. We rely on you to let us know if you become aware that we hold any incorrect details or if your details change. You can request a correction or update to your personal information using the contact details below. We will correct and update your personal information at your request or if we become aware of any inaccurate information.

Making a privacy complaint

You may also contact us to notify us of any privacy complaint you have against us. We are committed to acknowledging your complaint in a prompt manner and will give you an estimated timeframe for when we will respond to your complaint.

It is our intention to resolve any complaint to your satisfaction. However, if you are not satisfied with our response or if you do not wish to send your complaint to us, you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner ("OAIC") on 1300 363 992 or by using the other contact options available from the OAIC's website (www.oaic.gov.au).

Cross border transfers

We may disclose your personal information to overseas recipients where we are permitted, authorised or required by law or where a practice or individual located overseas has assisted us to provide you with medical services. This could occur where you have come from overseas and had your health records transferred to us or where we continue treatment from an overseas health care provider. In that case, your personal information will be disclosed between our practice and the country in which the practice or individual is located.

How to contact us

If you would like to correct or update your personal information or if you have any questions about our privacy policy or personal information we hold about you, or if you would like to notify us of any privacy complaint you have against us, please contact us at the following address.

Practice Manager
Ashford Dermatology Services
6 Finniss Street
Marion SA 5043

E-mail: manager@ashforddermatology.com.au

About this privacy policy

This privacy policy is effective as at 25th October 2023.

From time to time, we may need to change this policy. If we do so, we will post the updated version on this website (http://www.ashforddermatology.com.au) and the updated version will apply to all your personal information held by us at the time.

If you are unsure about whether you are reading our most current privacy policy, please contact us