The Albury Day Surgery is committed to providing quality healthcare for its patients. As a fundamental part of this commitment, management and staff of the Albury Day Surgery recognize the importance of insuring that our patients are fully informed and involved in their healthcare.

The Albury Day Surgery is a health provider in the private sector bound by the National Privacy Principles. These principles set the standards by which we handle personal information collected from our patients. A copy of these Principles is available for inspection at the reception desk.

As a part of our commitment to providing quality health care it is necessary for us to maintain files pertaining to your health. These files contain the following types of information:

• Personal details (Your name, address, date of birth, Medicare number.)
• Your medical history.
• Notes made during the course of medical consultations and procedures.
• Referrals to other health service providers.
• Results and reports received from other healthcare providers.

The information held about you is provided by you or arises as a consequence of information provided by you.

Your medical file is handled with the utmost respect for your privacy. Your file will be accessed by your doctor. It will also be necessary for our staff to handle your file to address administrative requirements.  Our staff are bound by strict confidentiality requirements as a condition of employment regarding your medical records.

Ordinarily we will not release the contents of your medical file without your consent. However, we advise that there may be occasions where we will be required to release the details of your file irrespective of whether your consent to the disclosure of the information is given. This will occur where the law requires disclosure, such as pursuant to a subpoena.

We advise that as a patient of the Albury Day Surgery you have rights of access to any information we hold concerning you. Should you wish to access this information we refer you to our handout entitled ACCESSING YOUR MEDICAL RECORD. As part of our commitment to preserving the confidentiality of information contained in your medical record we advise that strict secure storage policies are observed. Your electronic records are accessible only by staff of Albury Day Surgery and are protected by security password. Your paper records are kept in secure filing cabinets and accessible only by Albury Day Surgery staff. Each member of staff is well versed in the principles and importance of doctor-patient confidentiality.

Should you, at any time, have a query or complaint in relation to the privacy policies in place at the Albury Day Surgery please contact Ms. Ann McHardy CEO who will be able to address any concerns you may have. We advise that it is the Albury Day Surgery’s policy that any complaint is required to be made in writing and addressed to Ms. Ann McHardy and marked private and confidential. We advise that we will endeavour to address complaints within 60 days.