Privacy Policy
Health HQ

New Australian Privacy Legislation

What to look for in a Privacy Policy

What to look for in a Privacy Policy
(click to enlarge)

Health HQ is aware of the changes to Privacy Legislation enacted in 2014.

We believe we are either fully compliant or are currently implementing procedures to become fully compliant according to the Australian Privacy Principles (APP) Guidelines and matters pertaining to.

as well as all other matters that we are required to be compliant to.


The new privacy act now includes a set of 13 new harmonised privacy principles that regulate the handling of personal information by Australian government agencies and some private sector organisations including healthcare providers such as Health HQ.

These principles are called the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

See the OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) Privacy Fact Sheet.

See also privacy fact sheet 13 for information regarding healthcare provider's compliance to new privacy legislation.
Or as so named by the OAIC, the "compliance obligations of private healthcare providers and individual healthcare identifiers (HI)".

As well as HI see also more important new acronyms: IHI, HPI-I and HPI-O.

See more about privacy matters regarding Health and your personal eHealth record.

Patient Records

Your medical record is a confidential and private document between your healthcare provider such as your doctor or in some cases your nurse.

Health HQ stores patient records in a secure computer system administered by computer security experts who specialise in confidential medical records.

Our providers are on the record of contracted service provider (CSP) organisations (more about CSP on the medicare website) who are organisations that can act on behalf of a healthcare provider organisation.

A CSP can access the HI Service and the eHealth record system on behalf of a healthcare provider organisation when providing IT services to communicate or manage health information.

Health HQ medical practitioners use your medical record to more effectively treat you.

It is the policy of this medical practice to maintain a high level of security of our patient's personal health information at all times, and to ensure that this information is only available to authorized practice personnel members and in some cases Australian Govt . health information collection bodies where the information is not personally identifiable.

The information collected by the Australian Govt. is used to provide better healthcare for the Australian population including funds allocation and rapid responses to health crises.

We do not share or sell your confidential health information to any third parties and do not disclose the information to any overseas private or govt businesses or agencies.

If you wish to make a privacy complaint please contact Health HQ on (07) 5526 4444 and ask to speak to the privacy compliance officer or practice manager.

If you are unsatisfied with the response please contact the OAIC, you may use the OAIC online privacy complaint form.

Collection of information via website

Health HQ is at all times aware of, and adheres to the Privacy Act 1988 and the privacy principles document put out by the Australian Govt. in 2001 see the PDF here.

An updated copy can be found on the privacy website at www.oaic.gov.au see updates and amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 here.

Essentially we comply by not reselling any private information we collect in the course of a website enquiry and do not keep information collected by phone or internet unless it is for the carrying out of the healthcare purposes by which people come to us to be treated.

If a person becomes a patient in our care then we make sure their information is kept private and is not seen by outside parties or parties other than our practice personnel who have a reason to be viewing the information.

See also AMA Privacy Resource Handbook (PDF).(not updated to new 2014 privacy legislation)

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