At North Shore Plastic Surgery we need information about your past and present health in order to provide you with high quality care.

This practice will make sure that you are able to discuss your health with your care provider in private.

Information is called "personal health information" if it concerns your health, medical history of past, present and future medical care and if someone reading it would be able to identify you.

For this reason you will be asked to fill in a confidential information form to provide written information necessary to complete your file. If you are unable or unwilling to complete this form please tell the receptionist.

Your medical records
We will do our best to make sure that your medical records.

	Are legible, comprehensive, well organised and accurate.
	Are up to date.
	Have enough information to allow another doctor or nurse to care for you.
	Do not contain offensive or irrelevant comments about you.
	Contain a summary of your care
	Can be used with your permission to remind you to return for follow up.
	We will only collect information which is relevant to your medical care. In the case of workers compensation, third party or public liability claims, some non-medical information may be required. If you are uncertain as to why the information is being collected please ask.

Providing Your Information to Others (Medical)
We respect your right to decide how your personal health information is used or disclosed. In all but exceptional circumstances, personal details that identify you will be sent to other people only with your consent.

It is important that other people involved in your care, such as referring doctors and other health professionals are informed of relevant parts of your medical history, so that they can best care for you. We may write a referral or letter to another doctor. If you have any concerns about this please discuss then with us.

Providing Your Information to Others (third party)
We will not disclose your personal health information to a third party (eg rehabilitation providers, insurance companies, solicitors, employers) without your consent unless:

This disclosure is necessary because you are at risk of harm without treatment and you are unable to give your consent; for example if you are unconscious after an accident or

We are legally obliged to disclose the information (eg certain infectious diseases, suspected child abuse or under a court order) or

The information is necessary to obtain Medicare payments or other health insurance rebates or

The information is necessary for us to carry out a review of this practice for the purpose of improving the quality of care provided and the activity has been approved by government legislation or a medical college.

In any of the above cases only information is necessary to achieve the objectives will be disclosed.

Using Health Information for Research and Quality Improvement
We occasionally use patient information to assist in reviewing and improving the various treatment modalities. Information that cannot identify you may also be used in research projects to improve community health care.

Wherever possible any details used for research or teaching purposes will not be in a form that will enable you to be identified.

Your Access to Health Information
You may ask Dr Barnett or Dr Richards about any aspect of your treatment including information in your record to which you can have access.

Information in your record can be provided to you by way of an accurate and up to date summary of your treatment for instance if you are moving away and wish to transfer to another doctor. If you do make such a request we may remove any information provided by others on a confidential basis as well as considering the risk of any physical or psychological harm to you or another person which may result from disclosure of your health information.

We will be happy to provide a full explanation of the health summary or medical record provided. You may be asked to contribute to the cost of providing the information.