Macquarie Dental
PRIVACY POLICY

Every time we see you, we make notes relating to your consultations and treatment here, which include dates, details of any discussions we have with you, and of treatment provided. There may be exchanges of correspondence between this practice and other healthcare professionals involved in your care and treatment. Our administration staff will also keep financial records relating to our professional fees for services you receive from us. Where necessary, this further information might need to be shared with people outside the practice to assist the practice with fee collection.

We collect this information, and we keep it safely in confidential records within the practice. At Macquarie Dental we keep some of these records on paper, and other on a computer. Your records include any X-rays we might take for you, any special reports we might request (eg, from a specialist) and correspondence with specialists and other third parties relating to your care and treatment.

In order to safeguard your interests, we recognise our responsibility to treat all this information as confidential, and to respect your privacy and your right to know what information we are holding, who might see it (and under what circumstances) and what we use it for.

At Macquarie Dental we have a Privacy Policy which is as follows:

1. Information such as your name and address is used when we need to write to you about your treatment, or to process accounts or for other administrative purposes relating to the treatment you receive here. It may be seen or used by members of our practice staff, or by third parties who assist or advise the practice, but only for the above purposes.
2.  Information about your health and other information of a personal nature, may be shared or disclosed with other healthcare professionals where we believe this is necessary for reasons connected with your treatment.
3. Every effort is made to keep your personal and health information up to date. You can help us by letting us know of any changes in your personal details (name, address etc) or health/medication.
4. Various precautions are taken to keep your records safe, secure and confidential while they are stored here. We would be happy to explain these to you upon request.
5. You can ask to see the records we hold about you, and other people can make such a request on your behalf, with your prior agreement. We will do our best to explain any parts of your record, to help you to understand what they mean.
6. If, upon seeing your record, you think that any of the information is incorrect or inaccurate, you can ask us to change it.
7. Although all the records we keep about you (including X-rays etc) remain the property of Macquarie Dental at all times, you do have a right to request a copy of any part of, or all of your records. There is a formal process for this, which will be explained to you at the time your request is made.
8. A fee may be payable in several of the situations at (5), (6) and (7) above. This fee might vary according to the amount of time/ administration involved in dealing with your request.
9. There may be certain situations where we might be required to release information about you, your health and your treatment, such as emergency situations, or to satisfy legal or contractual requirements (for example, if any of your treatment is being provided through a Health Fund).
10. Case studies, lectures and professional meetings form an important part of the ongoing training and development of dentists and practice staff, for the ultimate benefit of all the patients we treat. Steps are taken to ensure that the identity of any patient whose records might for used for this purpose, is not revealed outside the practice.