PRIVACY POLICY

Commitment to privacy

We respect each person's right to privacy, so we're committed to complying with the Privacy Act 1988 and the National Privacy Principles.
This Statement contains some important information about how we deal with personal information.

In this Statement the expressions 'Synapse Medical Services', 'we', 'us' and 'our' refer to the Synapse Medical Services Pty Ltd and its associated entities.

Health Records and Information Privacy

Because we are dealing with patient information, we take privacy very seriously. All staff and contractors must sign a confidentiality agreement before working with us. 

All the patient information you provide to us is kept on a secure server and cannot be accessed by anyone who is not in our employ or contracted to us. As soon as billings have been completed, personnel are required to shred hard copy and permanently delete soft copy records. They will only exist on our secure server.  

We protect your patients and we protect your practice.

Only you and the staff you authorise from your clinic can request access to your billing information. No other medical practitioner, hospital, health fund or research body can access that information.

Synapse is bound by National Privacy Principles. We abide by the NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002, and follow the best practice standards outlined in the AMA Privacy Resource Handbook, and the Handbook for the Management of Health Information in Private Practice.  

Collection of personal information

We only collect the personal information that is necessary to lawfully and ethically carry on our business, to provide the services our clients require in specific matters, to communicate efficiently with our clients and contacts, to keep our clients and contacts informed of legal developments and events, and to responsibly market our services.

We collect personal information about a person directly from the person concerned when it's practical to do so. We may do this when a person meets with us, communicates with us by telephone, mail, fax or email, subscribes to our publications, or submits information via our website. We may be unable to provide the information or services a person requests if we are not given the personal information we ask for.

We also obtain information about people from our clients and their agents (in relation to specific matters), from their employers, or from publicly available records. If a third party, such as a client, gives us personal information about another person, the third party must ensure that they have the legal right to do so and that we have the right to use and disclose the information for the purposes for which it is provided to us without contacting the person. Depending upon the circumstances, the third party may need to inform the person that the information has been provided to us and ensure that the person is made aware of the matters detailed in this Statement.

Use and disclosure

We may use personal information we hold about people who are clients, employees of clients, or contacts to send them our publications, other information we think may interest them, or invitations to our events, but we won't if they have told us that they don't want to receive such communications.

Apart from that we will only use the personal information we collect to provide the services that our clients instruct us to provide in specific matters.

We have a professional duty to maintain the confidentiality of our clients' information, and we will not disclose information about a client unless we have our client's instructions, or are under a legal obligation, to do so. Often the information given to us by clients is subject to legal professional privilege and we cannot be compelled to disclose it unless our client consents.

Generally, we will only disclose our clients' information for a purpose that is related to the service that we are providing. This may include disclosures to organisations that provide us with professional advice, such as solicitors, accountants and business advisors, and to contractors to whom we out-source certain functions such as electronic network administrators and data entry operators. However, where possible, we take contractural measures, and, in all other circumstances, take all reasonable measures, with our contractors to ensure that they comply with the privacy standards set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW). We require our contractors to complete their work on our secure server and do not permit them to disclose information to sub-contractors. We may also disclose information where it is expressly permitted under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), for example, where it is with your consent or where we are legally required to do so, such as under a court order or taxation laws.

Information security

We take appropriate steps to ensure that all information we hold is protected from loss, misuse, or unauthorised access, disclosure or modification. We maintain physical security over our premises and access to our computer systems is limited by user identifiers and passwords. All our staff are subject to strict obligations of confidentiality.

Our website

A person may use our website anonymously, but any information the person chooses to submit to us (e.g. to book for an event, subscribe to a publication, or send us an email) will be treated in accordance with this Statement.

Our website does not use cookies or web bugs, but our Internet Service Provider may record details of visits to our site such as the visitor's server address, domain name and browser type, the date and time of the visit, the information downloaded, and links from other sites followed to get to our site. This information is anonymous and is only used for statistical and website development purposes and to improve our communications.

Access rights

People can request access to the personal information we hold about them. There are some limitations upon this right to access, such as where we owe a duty of confidentiality to a client or legal professional privilege applies. We may charge a fee when access is provided.

Contacting us about privacy

To enquire about any privacy issue, or make a request for access to information, please contact us.