Information for Patients

• Your completed Patient Information Form
• Any previous scans you have had performed (X-rays, mammograms, ultrasounds etc) including the report
• Medicare card
• Private health fund details
• List of current medications
• You are welcome to bring family member or friend
• A referral from your GP or another doctor is helpful, but not essential

Most consultations are booked for 45 minutes and include a comprehensive diagnostic of your risk factors, current concerns and a referral for a triple assessment diagnostic.

All efforts are made for you to be seen in a timely manner. 

PRIVACY POLICY

The Privacy Act 1988, amendments proclaimed December 2001, requires medical practitioners to obtain consent from their patients to collect, use and disclose the patient’s personal information. Your information will be transferred electronically to the surgeon as required.

Collection.

This means we will collect information that is necessary to properly advise and treat you. Such necessary information may include:

• Full medical history, family medical history
• Ethnicity and genetic information
• Contact details
• Medicare, private health fund details and details for the issue of bills and

This information is normally collected directly from you. There may be occasions when we need to obtain information from other sources, for example:

• Other medical practitioners such as former or current GP’s and specialists
• Other healthcare providers such as physiotherapists, occupation therapists, pharmacists, nurses and dentists
• Hospital and day surgery

Our practice staff and medical practitioners may participate in the collection of this information. In emergency situations, we may need to collect personal information from relatives or other sources where we are unable to obtain your prior express consent.

Use and Disclosure

With your consent, the practice staff will use and disclose your information for purposes such as:

• Including account keeping and billing purposes
• Referral to another medical practitioner or healthcare provider
• Sending specimens such as blood samples, biopsies of skin or organs for analysis
• Referral to a hospital for admission or other treatment options
• Management of this practice
• Quality assurance, practice accreditation and complaint handling
• To meet our obligations of notification to our medical defence organisations or insurers
• To prevent or lessen a serious threat to an individuals life, health or

Where legally required to do so, this practice must, without your consent, provide health information such as providing records to court, or notification of diagnosis of certain communicable diseases to the Health Department.

This practice may also without your consent, utilise your health information for purposes such as:

• Research relevant to public health or public safety
• The compilation or analysis of statistics relevant to public health or public safety
• The management, funding or monitoring of our health

In these instances, reasonable steps will be taken to de-identify the information before it is disclosed.

Access

You are entitled to access your own health records at a time convenient to both yourself and the practice. Access can be denied where:

• To provide access would create a serious threat to life or health
• There is a legal impediment to access
• Your request is frivolous
• The information relates to anticipated or actual legal proceedings, and you would not be entitled to access the information in those proceedings
• In the interests of national

Your request must be in writing. A charge of $100.00 will apply for photocopying and for staff time involved in the processing of your request. Where you dispute the accuracy of the information we have recorded, you are entitled to correct that information. It is our practice policy that we will take all steps to record all your corrections and place them in your file, but not erase the original record.

You will be asked to consent to the SouthWest Breast Clinic to collect, use and disclose your personal information as outlined above. You are entitled to access your own health records, except where access would be denied as outlined above. You may also withdraw your consent to the use and disclosure of your personal information, except where legal obligations must be met.