Privacy Policy

SMS Medical Holdings PTY LTD ABN 53 633 304 104 (“Grove Medical Victoria Park” complied with laws protecting your privacy. The Grove Medical Victoria Park Privacy Policy outlines how Grove Medical Victoria Park complies with its confidentiality and privacy obligations, specifically detailing how we collect and disclose personal and sensitive information (including health information) within the business, and how a Grove Medical Victoria Park patient can access their own personal and health information.

1. Grove Medical Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy applies to the collection (and use) of information by Grove Medical Victoria Park. This includes all associated entities, including each clinic in the Grove Medical Network as may be created from time to time.

The Grove Medical Privacy Policy relates to your interactions with the Grove Medical Victoria Park website and any related mobile applications (the “website or app”).

Grove Medical Victoria Park is committed to protecting your privacy, and respects and upholds your rights to privacy protection under applicable privacy laws. These laws regulate how we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information (as defined in those laws) about you and other individuals.

In Australia, Grove Medical Victoria Park complies with the Australian Privacy Policy Principles and the other requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) to ensure adherence to the regulations for the maintenance of privacy of personal and health information are upheld.

This Privacy Policy sets out the basis of how and when we collect your personal and health information, what that information is used for, who uses it, when it may be disclosed to other parties, and to whom we may disclose it.

This policy includes details on how you can access the personal and health information that Grove Medical Victoria Park holds about you and how to correct your own personal information.

By contacting Grove Medical Victoria Park to make an appointment or enquiry by accessing the Grove Medical Victoria Park website at www.grove-medical.com.au or through the AMS Connect app, you are deemed to have read and agreed to be bound by this privacy policy.

Our culture is one of trust, confidentiality and professionalism. We recognise that the information we collect is of a highly sensitive nature. We endeavour to prioritise ongoing compliance with privacy regulations, and we have adopted the highest privacy compliance standards to ensure personal information is protected.

2. What is your personal information?

Personal information is any information or an opinion that can be used to identify you. This may include your name, address, telephone number, email address, profession, date of birth or occupation. If the information we collect personally identifies you, or you are reasonably identifiable from it, the information will be considered personal information.

Distinct from personal information, there is also personal health information. Personal health information is personal information about a person’s health, medical history or medical care. Personal health information may be collected in the process of providing health services to you or may be about any health service provided to you.

For the purpose of this privacy policy, no distinction has been made between the handling of personal information and sensitive information (including health information), therefore all information will be referred to as ‘personal information’ throughout this document.

3. What personal information is collected from you?

Examples of personal information which we may collect from you include, but are not limited to, your name, postal address, delivery and collection addresses, date of birth, phone number, ABN, e-mail address and any other information provided by you or your referees if you are applying for a position of employment. If you provide financial information to us or our payment system providers, we collect some additional information, such as billing address, credit card details, financial institution account details and tracking information for cheques or money orders.

We may also collect some information from you during the process of using the AMS Connect app, this may include your Medicare Number, Health Fund details, medications and treatments, lifestyle information, profession, ethnicity, family history, the name of any health services or providers which you see or to which you are referred.

4. How we collect your personal information

Grove Medical Victoria Park will endeavour to collect information directly from you whenever possible, however personal information may also be collect on our behalf by our agents. We collect personal information about you in a number of ways, including but not limited to:

• directly from you when you make a telephone or online booking or enquiry.’
• directly from you if you send us personal correspondence, such as emails or letters.
• when you provide information and navigate through our website and or the AMS Connect app, including through Cookies as defined in clause 13.
• When you complete our “application” form, our “contact us” for, or any other forms.
• from billing, medical services and treatment to patients.
• when you apply for any positions with us (see more information in “Applications for Employment” below).
• from publicly available sources of information.
• from third parties such as credit reporting bodies and marketing agencies, including information you provide to us using our social media pages.
• from our own records.

We only collect personal information by lawful and fair means that is reasonably necessary for us to conduct our business and to meet our legal obligations or otherwise in accordance with any specific consent given by you.

5. Consent for collection of personal information

Consent for the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information can be given by you at any time. The essential elements of consent are that it is base of sufficient information to make an informed choice, the person is competent to consent and that it is given freely and not obtained through coercion.

There are situations when health service providers may reasonably assume that implied consent has been provided to collect and handle personal information.

For example, when an individual presents to a medical practitioner for a consultation, if a medical practitioner collects a specimen to send to a pathology lab for testing, it would be reasonable to consider that the individual is giving implied consent to the passing of necessary information to the laboratory.

The consent of a patient is not required where the use or disclosure of the Personal Information is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious and imminent threat to an individual’s life, health or safety or a serious threat to public health or safety.

6. Applications for Employment

When you apply for a job with us, most of the personal information that we collect about you is the information contained within your application, including your name, address, telephone number, education and employment history.

In considering your application, we may also collect personal information about you from third parties such as your previous employers or referees. We may also collect sensitive personal information about you, such as your criminal record. Where we do so, your consent will be sought first.

The information that we collect in the course of your employment application process will be used to access your suitability for a position with us, to assess your qualifications to move forward in the recruitment process and/or to store your details for opportunities that may arise in your future.

When you do not provide us with information that we request of you, we will not be able to assess your suitability for a position or any future openings.

During the course of your employment application process with us, we may disclose your information to:

• your nominated referees
• past employers
• recruitment agencies or contractors acting for you in the employment application process.
• government or other agencies, such as to conduct criminal record checks.
• educational organisations, such as to verify your qualifications and health credentials.

7. For what purpose do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?

Grove Medical Victoria Park uses your personal information so that we can improve and perform our business activities and functions and to provide you with any products or services which you may request, o to respond to any query or complaint that you may have. We may also use your personal information to, for example:

• verify your identity.
• to administer our services, products and programs.
• provide the products or services you require or for related purposes that would reasonably be expected.
• administer and manage our services or treatment to patients.
• assist with the administrative, marketing (including direct marketing), planning, product or service development, quality control and research purposes of us and our related bodies corporate, contractors or service providers.
• undertake data research and analysis.
• inform you of ways that the services provided to you could or have been improved.
• conduct appropriate checks for fraud or other legal purposes.
• update our records and keep your contact details up to date.
• maintain and develop our business systems and infrastructure, including testing and upgrading of these systems.

Grove Medical Victoria Park will not sell or license any of your personal data to third parties for their direct marketing purposes unless we have your express consent to do so.

When collecting your personal information, we do so in accordance with relevant Australian laws and the Australian Privacy Principals. We may also use your personal information for other purposes not listed above.

8. What happens if we cannot collect your personal information?

If you do not provide us with the personal information described above, some or all of the following may happen:

• We may not be able to provide our services, products and programs to you.
• we may not be able to provide you with information or important updates about services, products and programs that you may want.
• we may be unable to tailor the content of our website, or the AMS Connect app to your preferences and your experience of our website or app may not be as enjoyable or useful.
• We may not be able to process or progress your employment application.

9. When we disclose your personal information

In order to deliver the products and services you require; Grove Medical Victoria Park may disclose your personal information to organisations outside of Grove Medical. Your personal information may be disclosed to these organisations so that we can provide you with the required services to conduct the necessary administrative or marketing function required. These organisations include, but are not limited to, organisations and third-party service providers who we engaged to carry out the following services:

• customer support enquiries
• mailing operations
• printing operations
• billing and debt-recovery functions
• payment services requirements
• technology services
• installation, maintenance and repair services
• professional service functions like legal, accounting and business advisory
• marketing, telemarketing and market research
• product, website and app usage analysis

We may disclose your personal information to:

• any parties necessary to provide the services, products and programs which you request from us
• any parties necessary to provide you with access to the website or any associated apps
• external IT services
• your authorised representatives, insurers or your legal advisers (when requested by you to do do)
• credit reporting bodies or fraud checking agencies (where relevant)
• our professional advisers, including our accountants, auditors, insurers and lawyers
• government and regulatory authorities and other organisations, as required by law
• if Grove Medical Victoria Park is, or is in negotiations to be taken over by, or sold to, another company (“takeover company”), to the takeover company and its professional advisors
• third party promotion hosting agencies
• any others you have been informed of or consented to (express or implied)

Personal information can be used or disclosed to other for some other purpose if:

• you have consented to the use or disclosure
• the medical practitioner reasonably believed the use or disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious and imminent threat to an individual’s life, health or safety, or a serious threat to public health or public safety
• the use or disclosure is required or authorised by law (e.g. statutory duties, to notify certain infectious diseases or suspected child abuse, or compliance with a subpoena or court order)
• where the medical practitioner has reason to suspect unlawful activities or reasonably believes in is reasonably necessary for certain law enforcement purposes
• the information concerns a patient who is incapable of giving consent, and is disclosed to a person responsible for the patient for compassionate reasons or to enable appropriate care or treatment to be provided to the patient
• Any disclosure should be limited to that which is either authorised or required in order to achieve the desired objective. Grove Medical Victoria Park will take reasonable steps to ensure that these organisations are bound by privacy obligations in relation to the continuing protection of your personal information.

10. Transfer of personal information outside Australia

• In addition to holding your personal information in Australia we may hold your personal information in the cloud or on servers located outside Australia. We take all reasonable steps to ensure that the personal information which has been transferred outside of Australia will be held in jurisdictions whose privacy laws are equal to better than Australia’s, and will not be held, used or disclosed by the recipient of the information inconsistency with the Australian Privacy Principles.

11. Direct Marketing and your privacy

• Grove Medical Victoria Park also collects your personal information for marketing purposes, including e-newsletters, promotions and special offers. Our communications may be sent to you in various forms, including mail, SMS, in-app notifications, fax and email in accordance with applicable laws. If you indicate a preference for a method of communication, we will endeavour to use that method whenever practical to do so.
• If you have received marketing information from Grove Medical Victoria Park and wish to stop receiving it, you can contact us and ask us to stop sending the marketing information within a reasonable time after your request has been made. Grove Medical Victoria Park will not charge you, or in any way disadvantage you, if you choose to opt out of receiving marketing material.
• Grove Medical Victoria Park may occasionally provide its marketing material to third parties to distribute material on Grove Medical’s behalf.

12. Cookies

• Like many companies, Grove Medical Victoria Park sometimes uses “cookie’ technology on its website and other online mediums. A “cookie” is a small summary file containing a unique ID number which is stored on your computer by your browser. When you log in, the cookie tells Grove Medical Victoria Park whether you have visited the Website before or if you are a new visitor. The cookie doesn’t obtain any personal information about you or provide Grove Medical Victoria Park with any way to contact you, and the cookie doesn’t extract any information from your computer. Grove Medical uses the Cookie to help it identify the relevant website features in which you have the greatest interest, so that it may better personalise your access to the website and other online mediums you engage with.
• If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set your browser so that your computer does not accept them.

13. Links to other websites

• The website may contain links to other sites. Grove Medical Victoria Park makes no representations or warranties as to the privacy practices of any site operated by a third party and is not responsible for the privacy policies of such other sites.

14. Notification

We will take all reasonable steps to secure your personal information. We recognise the importance of ensuring that personal information is accurate, and we will take all reasonable steps to make sure that the personal information collected, used or disclosed is complete and up to date.

Electronic information is protected by various security measures and access to information and databases is restricted to our staff and contractors that may need access to the information in order to perform their duties.

Grove Medical Victoria Park cares about protecting the security if your personal information, and we have implemented security procedures to protect the personal information which you provide to us.

Due to the sensitive nature of the information collected by Grove Medical Victoria Park, extra precautions are taken to ensure the security of the information. Information may be stored electronically and/or hard copy. All electronically stored files are password protected on several levels, and regular backups performed.

15. How you can access and correct your personal information held by Grove Medical Victoria Park

You are entitled at any time to request details and a copy of your personal information held by us by contacting us in writing. To protect your privacy, Grove Medical Victoria Park may require proof of your identity before acting upon your request. Access will be provided unless there is a legal or administrative reason for denying or limiting access, as permitted by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). We advise you of the grounds of any refusal.

If an individual asks, they may be given access to the personal information held about them unless particular circumstances apply that allow us to deny access.

Situations for denial of access include:

• providing access would pose a serious threat to life or health of any individual
• providing access would have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of other individuals
• the request for access is frivolous or vexatious.
• denying access is required or authorised by law

Where we hold information that you are entitled to access we will endeavour to provide you with suitable means of accessing it (for example, by mailing or emailing it to you). Depending on the circumstances, Grove Medical Victoria Park reserves the right to charge you a reasonable administrative fee for access to the personal information. We will not charge for simply making the request and will not charge for making any corrections to your personal information.

If you believe that personal information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete pr inaccurate, then you may request us to amend it. We will consider if the information requires amendment. If we do not agree that there are grounds for amendment, then we will add a note to the personal information stating that you disagree with it.

16. Changes to the Privacy Policy

From time to time, it may be necessary for us to make updates to our privacy policy without notice. The updated privacy policy will be accessible on the website at all times. Grove Medical Victoria Park values your privacy, and we will ensure that any changes will not alter how we handle previously collected information.

17. How to contact us

If you would like to contact us or require more information concerning Grove Medical Victoria Park’s approach to privacy or how Grove Medical handles your personal information, you can write to us at the below address:

Attention: Grove Medical Victoria Park Privacy Officer

Grove Medical Victoria Park

1009/1015 Albany Highway, St James, 6102

Alternatively, you can email your privacy query directly to us by using the ‘contact us’ page on our website.

You are entitled to contact us anonymously or by using a pseudonym if your prefer to do so. If you choose to remain anonymous this may limit our ability to assist you with any feedback or enquiry. We will tell you if we need to collect your name or any other personal information to help further.

18. How do you make a complaint or provide us with feedback?

If you wish to make a complain to Grove Medical Victoria Park about a possible breach of privacy, please provide full details of your complaint in writing, and send it to Grove Medical Privacy Officer (see contact details above). Please allow up to 30 days for your request or complaint to be processed.

If your complaint relates to our failure to provide access to or to correct any personal information that we hold about you, or if you are not satisfied with the manner in which we deal with your complaint (within 30 days), you may lodge or refer your complaint directly to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (for more information, please see www.oaic.gov.au).

If your complaint does not relate to these matters, you must first lodge a complaint with us in writing and provide us with details of the incident so that we can investigate. We will treat your complaint confidentially, investigate your complaint and aim to ensure that we contact you and your complaint is resolved within a reasonable time (and in any event within the time required by the relevant privacy legislation, if applicable). We may ask you to participate in a dispute resolution scheme (such as mediation) to resolve your complaint.

Individuals enquiring about their rights and remedies for breaches of privacy, can access detailed information at the Office or the Australian Information Commissioner www.oaic.gov.au

If you wish to provide us with feedback, either positive or negative, you may contact our Privacy Officer on the details provided above. We take concerns and suggestions seriously and will endeavour to follow up and feedback with a reasonable timeframe.

19. Waiver

If Grove Medical Victoria Park delays or does not exercise any of its rights and remedies available to it under this Privacy Policy, that will not be a waiver of that right or remedy.

20. Severability

If any provision of this Privacy Policy is held to be invalid, void, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, such provision shall be deemed to be severed for this Privacy Policy and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

This Privacy Policy was last updated in May 2023.