Your Privacy

1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 This Privacy Policy is to provide information to you on how your personal information (which includes your
sensitive information, including your health information) is collected and used within our practice, Grass
Tree Group Pty Ltd ACN 677 445 608, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.
2 WHY AND HOW YOUR CONSENT IS NECESSARY
2.1 When you register as a patient of a practitioner who consults from our practice, you provide consent for us
(including our employees, agents, contractors and other representatives) to access and use your personal
information so the independent practitioners consulting from our practice can provide you with the best
possible healthcare. Only persons who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we
need to use your information for any other purposes, we will seek additional consent from you to do so.
3 WHY DO WE COLLECT, USE, HOLD AND SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
3.1 Our practice will need to collect your personal information to facilitate the provision of healthcare services
to you by the independent practitioners consulting from our practice. Our main purpose for collecting, using,
holding and sharing your personal information is to facilitate the management of your health by those
independent practitioners. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and
payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (e.g. staff training).
4 WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT
4.1 The information we will collect about you includes your:
(a) names, date of birth, addresses, contact details (phone/email) including emergency contact and next
of kin;
(b) demographic information, including gender, cultural background;
(c) medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations,
social history, family history and risk factors;
(d) Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes;
(e) healthcare identifiers;
(f) payment and / or financial information;
(g) concession card details;
(h) health fund details; and
(i) workcover or third-party insurance claim details.
5 DEALING WITH US ANONYMOUSLY
5.1 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.

5.2 Please be aware that Medicare rebates are only available where a Medicare card (and / or associated
information) is available. As such your practitioner may require you to pay for your consults in full without
this rebate if you choose to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym.
6 HOW DO WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
6.1 Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways:
(a) You may provide us with your personal information directly (for example, when you make an
appointment with a practitioner consulting from our practice, our practice staff will collect your
personal and demographic information via your registration);
(b) The independent practitioners providing medical services may also collect further personal
information from you which may be disclosed to us. Information can also be collected through My
Health Record, e.g. via Shared Health Summary, Event Summary or through a Discharge Summary
provided by a hospital or other healthcare service providers;
(c) We may also collect your personal information when you contact us via our website, send us an email
or SMS, telephone us, make an online appointment or communicate with us using social media; and
(d) In some circumstances personal information may also be collected from other sources. Often this is
because it is not practical or reasonable to collect it from you directly. This may include information
from:
i your guardian or responsible person;
ii other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals,
community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services; and / or
iii your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary).
6.2 If your practitioner deems it in your best interest to discuss your clinical information with you, we will arrange
for this to occur either in person, via telephone or via videoconference.
7 WHEN, WHY AND WITH WHOM DO WE USE AND SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
7.1 We collect, use and disclose your personal information to facilitate the provision of medical services to
patients of the independent practitioners consulting from our practice.
7.2 We may also share your personal information:
(a) with other healthcare providers;
(b) when it is required or authorised by law (e.g. court subpoenas, or where we are obliged to make a
mandatory notification to a regulatory body);
(c) when it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public
health or safety, or where it is otherwise impractical to obtain your consent;
(d) to assist in locating a missing person;
(e) to establish, exercise or defend a claim;
(f) for the purposes of confidential dispute resolution processes;
(g) during the course of providing nursing support services;
(h) for the purposes of uploading that information to your My Health Record, such as through the shared
health summary or event summary; and / or
(i) with third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies
or information technology providers – these third parties are required to comply with the Australian
Privacy Principles (APPs) and this policy.
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7.3 Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of facilitating
the provision of medical services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal
information with any third party without your consent.
7.4 We will not share your personal information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exceptional
circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent. We will store your personal information in a
secure, cloud-based medical software system called Halaxy. With Halaxy, your data is backed up daily and
protected by bank grade security and encryption in Australia. A copy of Halaxy’s privacy policy is located
here should you like to review: https://www.halaxy.com/privacy/au.
7.5 Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly to you
without your express consent. If you do consent, you may opt out of direct marketing at any time by notifying
our practice in writing.
7.6 Your practitioner may use any artificial intelligence program, such as Heidi AI, to record, dictate and
summarise your appointment and store the transcript of the appointment in your medical record. These
notes will be reviewed by your practitioner to ensure they accurately reflect your appointment before they
are relied upon to provide medical advice. A copy of Heidi AI’s privacy policy is located here should you like
to review: https://www.heidihealth.com/en-au/legal/privacy-policy. Please talk to your practitioner if you have
any questions.
7.7 We do not make any warranties, guarantees or undertakings as to how the third-party provider will collect,
store or use data. We will not be liable under any circumstances for any damages of any kind recognised
by law due to the third-party provider’s conduct. We will participate in updating you on your practitioner’s
behalf if required. Any complaints regarding the artificial intelligence program should be sent to your
practitioner or directly to the third-party provider.
8 HOW DO WE STORE AND PROTECT YOUR INFORMATION
8.1 Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms.
8.2 Our practice stores information as electronic records (including via cloud-based services), visual records
(including photos) and archived paper records.
8.3 Our practice stores all personal information securely via the use of passwords, encrypted back-ups,
confidentiality agreements for staff and secure cabinets.
8.4 All records will be retained until the later of seven (7) years from your last contact with the practice, or until
you reach the age of twenty-five (25).
8.5 We take steps to destroy or de-identify information that we no longer require.
8.6 Our server security policy is designed to protect the servers from unauthorised access, data breaches, and
other security threats. Our practice uses the following security measures to ensure the personal information
which it holds is secured:
(a) Antivirus software is installed on all servers and updated regularly.
(b) Firewalls are configured to block unauthorised traffic
(c) Access to servers is restricted to authorised users.
(d) Physical access to the servers are limited
9 HOW CAN YOU ACCESS AND CORRECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AT OUR PRACTICE
9.1 You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information.
9.2 Our practice acknowledges patients may request access to their medical records. You can lodge this
request either via email (admin@grasstreegroup.com.au) or telephone. Our practice will acknowledge your
request within three (3) business days. We can email the information to you if you request it. If we are
required to process a request for your records, we may charge for our reasonable costs incurred in
complying with your request.

9.3 Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not
accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will ask you to verify that your personal information held by
our practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and
you should make such requests in writing to admin@grasstreegroup.com.au. There is no fee charged for
making corrections to your personal information.
10 HOW CAN YOU LODGE A PRIVACY-RELATED COMPLAINT, AND HOW WILL THE COMPLAINT BE
HANDLED AT OUR PRACTICE
10.1 We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns
(including any breach of the APPs or any registered binding APP code) you may have in writing.
10.2 Complaints should be addressed to:
(a) Name and Position: Dr Palingu Dhanapala, Practice Manager
(b) Address: Room 338, Level 5, Watkins Medical Centre, 225 Wickham Terrace, Spring Hill QLD 4000
(c) Email: admin@grasstreegroup.com.au
10.3 We will respond with acknowledgement of your complaint within three (3) business days and provide a
response within thirty (30) business days.
10.4 You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). Generally, the OAIC
will require you to give them time to respond before they will investigate. For further information, visit
www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.
11 PRIVACY AND OUR WEBSITE
11.1 If you “like” or comment on our social media pages, we will have your social media name.
11.2 Our website uses cookies. A “cookie” is a small file stored on your computer’s browser, which assists in
managing customised settings of the website and delivering content. We collect certain information such as
your device type, browser type, IP address and pages you have accessed on our website and on third-party
websites. You are not identifiable from such information. You can use the settings in your browser to control
how your browser deals with cookies. However, in doing so, you may be unable to access certain pages or
content on our website.
11.3 Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the content or privacy
practices of websites that are linked from our website.
12 PRIVACY STATEMENT REVIEW
12.1 This privacy policy will be reviewed annually to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur.