Macquarie Health Corporation Privacy Statement

Macquarie Health Corporation (Macquarie) is bound by the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and other relevant laws about how private health service providers handle personal information (including but not limited to patient health information).

We are committed to complying with all applicable privacy laws which govern how Macquarie collects, uses, discloses and stores your personal information.

This Privacy Statement sets out in brief how Macquarie will handle your personal information. For further information or to receive a copy of our full Privacy Policy, please ask a staff member or telephone the Hospital and ask to speak with our Privacy Officer at Head Office in Leichhardt. You can also write to our Privacy Officer to request more information.

In respect of Patients, Macquarie will collect your personal information for the purpose of providing you with health care and for directly related purposes. For example, Macquarie may collect, use or disclose personal information:

  • For use by a multidisciplinary treating team;
  • Assessment for provision of health care services;
  • 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 hospitals, including for processes relating to risk management, safety and security activities and quality assurance and accreditation activities;
  • For the education of health care workers or the placement of students or trainees at Macquarie facilities;
  • To maintain medical records as required under our policies and by law; or
  • For other purposes required or permitted by law.

In respect of other individuals, Macquarie will collect your personal information in order to engage with you in your dealings with Macquarie and for other related purposes.

Personal information may be shared between Macquarie facilities to coordinate your care. We also outsource some of our services. This may involve us sharing your personal information with third parties. For example, we outsource the conduct of our patient satisfaction surveys to a contractor who may write to you seeking feedback about your experience with Macquarie.

We may outsource information and data storage services (including archiving of medical records), which may involve storing that information outside of Australia. Where we outsource our services we take reasonable steps in the circumstances to ensure that third parties, including organisations outside of Australia, have obligations under their contracts with Macquarie to comply with all laws relating to the privacy (including security) and confidentiality of your personal information.

Macquarie will usually collect your personal information directly from you, but sometimes may need to collect it from a third party. We will only do this if you have consented or where it is not reasonable or practical for us to collect this information directly from you (for example, in relation to a patient, 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;
  • For patients, the use or disclosure is for a purpose directly related to providing you with health care and you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose your personal information in this way;
  • For other individuals, the use or disclosure is for a purpose related to providing you with services and you would reasonably 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 that we hold about you (for patients, this includes health information contained in your health record). You can also request an amendment to personal information that we hold about you should you believe that it contains inaccurate information.