Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy is designed to describe the personal information collected from you, how it is protected and what it is used for. Instant Consult takes the protection of your personal information very seriously.
The health professionals you interact with through Instant Consult collects and handles your personal information, and you can expect them to do so in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy unless they inform you otherwise. Those health professionals are subject to additional legal obligations and professional standards for the protection of your personal information.
From time to time, we may need to change this policy. If we do so, we will post the updated version on our instantconsult.com.au and it will apply to all of your information held by us at the time.
Personal Information Collected
On registration we collect personal information you provide to us directly:
- Name
- Contact Information
- Date of Birth
- Gender
- Medicare Number under the Human Services (Medicare) Act 1973
- Medical History
- Next of Kin
- Payment Details
Once you have a consultation with a health professional using our platform, the Doctor will record notes of that consultation and collect information relevant to your consultation, including information and opinions regarding your health condition, treatments and allergies. Background information about you and your family may also be collected where provided voluntarily or relevant to your consultation, and this may include information about your lifestyle, work, relationships, ethnic background, religion, beliefs, sexual preference/activity and genetic information. Personal information from your national eHealth record may also be collected in accordance with the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records Act 2012 – see myhealthrecord.gov.au for further details.
Personal information is collected pursuant to Federal and State health laws including those mentioned above and the National Health Act 1953.
If you engage with us as a health professional, we may also collect information about your skills, qualifications and experience. Further details of this will be outlined in the Validation Process Agreement upon registering as a Doctor with Instant Consult.
Protection of Personal Information
We hold personal information electronically, both at our own premises and with the assistance of our service providers. We implement a range of measures to protect the security of personal information, including – depending on the circumstances – electronic access controls, premises security and network firewalls. These measures are in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and The Royal Australian College of General Practitioner’s (RACGP’s) “eHealth – guide for hardware and software requirements in general practice”.
Purpose of Personal Information Collected
Instant Consult provides an online platform designed to facilitate communications between independent health professionals and patients and to enable the provision of medical certificates, prescriptions, referrals, pathology requests, radiology requests and general letters.
Health professionals provide health services including diagnosing medical conditions and advising on treatment.
We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information to provide our platform and services, including:
- providing, administering, improving and personalising our services
- contacting you in relation to our services
- processing payments and refunds
- verifying your identity and personal information
- maintaining and updating our records
- recruiting, training and managing staff and health professionals
- conducting quality assurance activities to maintain the quality of our services and those of health professionals using our platform
- meeting our legal obligations
- protecting our lawful interests
- facilitating acquisitions and potential acquisitions of our business
All registered Instant Consult health practitioners and approved Instant Consult officers have access to consult notes and medical documents within the platform; this service offers transparency between the Instant Consult health practitioners intended for continuity of care and gives approved Instant Consult officers the ability to assist and support when required.
We may provide marketing communications to you on an ongoing basis by mobile, email and other means, unless you opt out or we are subject to legal restrictions. Details on how to opt out of any marketing material will be made available on each piece of marketing material delivered to you. We will not use health information about you for direct marketing purposes except in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
Personal Information Disclosure
Your personal information may be shared with third parties who work with Instant Consult for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies or information technology providers – these third parties are required to comply with this policy. Your personal information may also be shared with other healthcare providers, when it is required or authorised by law (eg. court subpoenas), when it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, when it is impractical to obtain the patient’s consent, to assist in locating a missing person, to establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim, for the purpose of confidential dispute resolution process, when there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (eg. some diseases require mandatory notification), during the course of providing medical services, through Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions (eTP), and where you have an eHealth record under the national system, your health professional may contribute your personal information to the operator of that system.
Your personal information may also be shared with providers of archival, auditing (including quality assurance in relation to health professionals using our platform), accounting, customer contact, legal, business consulting, banking, payment, debt collection, delivery, data processing, data analysis, document management, information broking, research, investigation, insurance, website or technology services. We may also exchange personal information with Medicare, health insurers and any party funding your health services in relation to matters such as claims, cover and billing.
Only people that need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing medical services or as otherwise described in this policy, Instant Consult will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.
Accessing and Updating your Personal Information
You will find editable fields in Your Profile section of the Instant Consult App and Website. These can be updated 24/7 independently and saved instantly.
Please contact us if you wish to seek access to or correct any other personal information we may hold about you. We aim to respond within a reasonable time and may need to verify your identity.
Please provide as much detail as you can about the particular information you seek, in order to help us locate it. We may deny some requests for access to or correction of personal information where the law allows us to do so.
If you wish to contact us regarding our Privacy Policy, please email: legal@instantconsult.com.au