Secret Women's Business Physiotherapy
Our commitment to your privacy
We are committed to handling personal information about you, including health information about you, in accordance with the requirements of the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 and NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002, including the Health Privacy Principles.
In this Policy, we explain:
- what kind of information we collect and hold about you
- how and why we collect it
- what we do with that information and who we share it with (and when)
- your right to seek access to, and if required correction of, the records we hold about you
- your right to make a privacy complaint, to us and others
- whether we are likely to disclose information about you to overseas recipients.
What kind of personal information do we collect about you?
We collect and hold the following kind of information about you:
- your name, address, date of birth, email and contact details
- information about your family or relatives
- information about other health professionals involved in your care including referral documents and letters
- any government identifiers such as Medicare number. However, we do not use these for the purposes of identifying you in our practice
- other health information about you such as: a record of your symptoms, your relevant medical history, the diagnosis made and the treatment we give you:
specialist reports
test results
your appointment and billing details
your medication details when provided
your health fund details
other information about you collected for the purposes of providing care to you.
How do we collect and hold your personal information?
We will generally collect personal information about you in these ways:
- directly from you when you give us your details (eg, face-to-face, over the phone, via registration client details form or an online form)
- from a person responsible for you
- from a third party where we are permitted by law to do that (eg. other health care professionals involved in your care sending us a referral, from your health insurer, from diagnostic and pathology services etc.).
Why do we collect and use information about you?
We primarily collect and use personal information about you to provide our physiotherapy services to you and to communicate with you and others involved in your care in relation to those services.
We also sometimes use that information for other purposes, including:
- to help us manage our accounts and administrative services, including billing, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts, management of our IT systems
- to conduct accreditation, quality assurance or internal audits.
- to communicate important information about our services, including appointment reminders, clinic closures, changes to operating hours, access disruptions and other relevant practice updates.
When and why might we share information about you with others?
We may disclose information about you to others outside of our practice as permitted or required under law. This will include situations where we disclose information about you in order:
- to comply with our legal obligations (eg. mandatory reporting under legislation, responding to a court order or subpoena)
- to consult with other health professionals involved in your healthcare
- to get test results from diagnostic and pathology services
- to claim on health insurance eg through HICAPS
- to communicate with your health fund, with government and other regulatory bodies such as Medicare
- to help us manage our accounts and administrative services (eg. billing or debt recovery, arrangements with health funds, pursuing unpaid accounts etc.)
- to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or a serious threat to public health or safety
- to prepare the defence of anticipated or existing legal proceedings
- to notify our professional indemnity or liability insurers about incidents, complaints or potential claims, where required or permitted by law.
Your right to seek access to and to seek correction of the information we hold about you
You have the right to seek access to and correction of the personal information we hold about you.
There is no fee for requesting access to your personal or health information. However, a reasonable fee may be charged for providing access to or copies of your records, in accordance with applicable privacy legislation. We will advise you of any applicable fees before providing access.
We will normally respond to your request within 30 days. To make the request, you should contact reception in writing via the contact details at the end of this document.
If you think that the information we hold about you is not correct, let us know in writing. We will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up-to-date. From time to time, we may also ask you to verify that the information we hold about you is correct and current. And please notify us if and when your contact details change (see “how to contact us”)
Security: How we hold your personal information
We take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold about you. These are designed to prevent unauthorised access, modification or disclosure and to prevent misuse and loss.
This includes:
- holding information on an encrypted patient software database (Gensolve – our practice management software)
- holding information in secure cloud storage
- getting staff to sign confidentiality documents
- providing staff with training on induction about confidentiality and (in particular) security issues
- access to information restricted on a ‘need to know’ basis
- strong password protections when accessing the information on practice computers, laptops and practice management software
- minimising any paper documents onsite at all times
- securely disposing of paper documents containing personal information when no longer required
Retention of health records
Patient health records are maintained electronically within our secure practice management software, Gensolve. We retain health records in accordance with applicable legal requirements, including the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) and relevant record retention requirements.
We take reasonable steps to ensure that patient records remain securely stored and accessible for the periods required by law.
Your right to receive treatment from us anonymously (or by using a pseudonym)
Where it is lawful and practicable for us to do so, you can be treated anonymously or through use of a pseudonym (a name other than yours).
Disclosing information about you overseas
Patient health records are securely stored within our electronic practice management system, Gensolve, which has confirmed that all data is stored exclusively in Australia.
We do not routinely disclose personal or health information to overseas recipients. However, we may disclose information to healthcare professionals overseas where this is necessary for your care and you have authorised us to do so.
Any overseas disclosure of personal or health information will be managed in accordance with applicable Australian privacy legislation.
If you have a privacy-related concern about us
If you have concerns about the way we have handled your personal or health information, please let us know in writing. We will endeavour to respond to your complaint within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may contact either of the following privacy authorities, depending on the nature of your complaint.
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC)
Phone: 1300 363 992
Email: enquiries@oaic.gov.au
Website: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/
Information and Privacy Commission NSW (IPC)
Phone: 1800 472 679
Email: ipcinfo@ipc.nsw.gov.au
Website: https://www.ipc.nsw.gov.au/privacy/citizens/make-complaint
The NSW Privacy Commissioner can consider complaints about the handling of health information by private healthcare providers under the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW).
Updating this policy
We will update this policy from time to time, to reflect any changes in our information-handling practices or the law or both. We will notify you of changes to the policy by posting it on our website.
How to contact us
To contact us about any privacy related issues, please approach:
Secret Women’s Business Physiotherapy
Unit 18, 800-812 Old Illawarra Road, Menai, NSW 2234
Phone: 02 9543 8090
Updated: October 2026