Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how QuIHN ensures compliance with our privacy obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

QuIHN is committed to protecting and upholding the rights of individuals to privacy, particularly in the way our staff collect, store and use information about people, their needs and the services provided to them. QuIHN wants our clients and stakeholders to have confidence that these responsibilities are taken seriously.

QuIHN and its staff will make sure no personal information is shared with any person or service, whether deliberately or by omission, unless informed consent has been given or in special circumstances where the law allows or demands an exception.

2. Personal information collected by QuIHN

QuIHN operates a number of business units, including its medical centre (Better Access Medical Clinic), therapeutic services (including counselling) and harm reduction services. In the event you access more than one of the services provided by QuIHN, QuIHN will share personal information between any of QuIHN’s business units to ensure QuIHN adequately assesses your health.

QuIHN may collect personal information from consumers for the purposes of providing services that are designed to assist in the provision of safe and quality health care. QuIHN may collect, personal information such as, but not limited to:
• Contact details, such as name including preferred name and pronouns, address, phone numbers and email address;
• Personal details, such as date of birth; gender at birth and current gender identity, partnership/marital status, the languages spoken; racial/ethnic origin; any disabilities, illnesses or injuries and advocate information;
• Health information, such as family history, health information previous/current medical history, including, where clinically relevant, a family medical history, the name of any other treating health service provider or medical specialist, current drugs or treatments used, Medicare, healthcare card and concession card details;
• Complaint information, enquiry or complaint details.
Other more sensitive information may be requested depending on the circumstances and services accessed. Such as, criminal record or sexual preferences or practices.

QuIHN will only collect sensitive information with your consent. Where you provide us with sensitive information (such as information about your health) via any means, we will only use this information to serve your particular needs.

Please note our Needle and Syringe Program remains an anonymous service and we do not collect or share information provided through the NSP services.

3. How personal information is collected and held

QuIHN will only collect personal information necessary for, or directly related to, its activities and functions and only by fair means. We collect information to assist in providing appropriate services to consumers and discharge our duty of care and other legal responsibilities. We also collect information for the normal running of a business, for example, billing purposes.
QuIHN collects personal information of an individual directly from an individual by way of:

• Intake and assessment forms, new patient forms, completed website enquiries;
• Meetings, interviews or telephone calls with an individual;
• Surveys and feedback forms and questionnaires;
• Publicly available records.

Personal information collected by QuIHN is held electronically on the information technology systems of QuIHN and may only be accessed by its authorised employees who require access in connection with the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

Some personal information is held in hard copy. This information is accessed by authorised employees who require access in connection with the purposes described in this Privacy Policy.

QuIHN takes all reasonable steps to protect the personal information that it holds from interference, misuse and loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure.

4. Purposes of which personal information is collected, held and used

We are required to collect information in order to provide a high standard of health care and appropriate services, to discharge our duty of care and to fulfil all other legal obligations. Additionally, there may also be serious complications to patient health if we do not know who they are, how to contact the patient or be able to contact the patient in a timely manner.

5. Anonymity and pseudonymity

Where it is lawful and practicable to do so, individuals dealing with QuIHN are not expected to identify themselves. However, there may be restrictions on our ability to provide some services if you wish to remain anonymous.

The Needle and Syringe Program remains an anonymous service.

6. Disclosure of personal information

QuIHN has possession of personal information and will ensure that there are reasonable safeguards against unauthorised access, use, modification or disclosure of the information.

Health providers involved in your treatment and care may receive selected information from your personal health record. These include pathology, hospital, radiology, medical defence organisations, insurers and specialist services.

In some circumstances QuIHN (including staff in the Better Access Medical Clinic) are legally obliged to disclose information about you in the following circumstances:
• where the Police/Court orders to make records or information available (e.g., subpoenas and search warrants);
• where you pose a danger to yourself or others; and
• where a child or young person is suspected of being harmed or is at risk of harm as defined by the Child Protection Act.

QuIHN will conform to the State and Commonwealth legal reporting requirements for each state where this program operates. This mainly involves the provision of de-identified data for reporting and statistical purposes.

7. Access to, and correction of, personal information

All requests for access to information are to be made in writing and directed to the Senior Management Team. Clients have the right to request that their file and any file notes, terminology etc be explained to them.

In accordance with the Right to Information Act 2009, QuIHN acknowledges that it must give an individual access to their personal information on request. This is limited by a number of considerations, for example:
• In the case where it would pose a threat to the life of any individual;
• Where the request for access is frivolous or vexatious; or
• Where denying access is required or authorised by law.

If an individual states or is able to establish that the information is not accurate, complete or up to date, QuIHN will take reasonable steps to correct the information so that it is accurate, complete and up to date.

8. Complaints

An individual may make a complaint in writing about how their personal information has been handled by QuIHN. If an individual is concerned that QuIHN has breached their privacy, they should provide a written complaint to the Privacy Officer at the address below:

Privacy Officer @ QuIHN
privacy@quihn.org
PO Box 2470, Fortitude Valley BC, QLD, Australia 4006
Phone: 07 3620 8111 or 1800 172 076 (free call)

QuIHN will respond to a written complaint within 30 days of receipt. If the complaint remains unresolved, then an individual has the option of notifying the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). OAIC’s contact details can be found at www.oaic.gov.au.

9. Changes to our privacy policy

From time to time, it may be necessary for QuIHN to review and revise its Privacy Policy. QuIHN reserves the right to change its Privacy Policy at any time, and it may notify you about changes to this Privacy Policy by posting an updated version on the websites.

If you would like a copy of QuIHN’s full Privacy Policy, please send an email to quihn@quihn.org

10. QuIHN Website Disclaimer

While we have made every effort in preparing this information to ensure that the materials contained within this site is true, accurate and up to date, we accept no responsibility and disclaim all liability in respect of any errors, inaccuracies or misstatements contained herein.

QuIHN websites collects anonymous information. The web server may make a record of visits and logs the following information for statistical purposes: such as, the user’s server address, the user’s top level domain name (e.g. com, .gov, .net, .au, etc.), the date and time of the visit to the site, the pages accessed and documents downloaded, the previous site visited, and the type of browser used.

No attempt will be made to identify users or their browsing activities except, in the unlikely event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant to inspect the internet service provider’s logs.

Cookies may be used, among other things, to track the pages visited, to remember preferences and to store personal information about consumers. If cookies are disabled, consumers may not be able to access certain areas of the website.

11. QuIHN Social Media Disclaimer

We will build our social media networks and communities by establishing linkages within each social media tool. We will, for example ‘add to favourites’ or ‘like’ (Facebook), ‘connect with’ (LinkedIn), ‘like/suggest’ (YouTube) other relevant organisations, businesses, and professionals.

When you use QuIHN’s social media pages, you are using an external site and are therefore bound by the terms and conditions of use of that site. We encourage you to review the legal policies of that site for further information. QuIHN does not endorse, and is not accountable for, any views expressed by third parties using that site.

The views expressed by any employees, staff, other clients of QuIHN and its outsourced services, and by any contributors to its social media pages are those of the individual sender. QuIHN accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of the views or information posted and disclaims all liability from those views that may be occasioned directly or indirectly through the use of, or reliance, on those views and information.

QuIHN disclaims all liability from those views and recommends users seek appropriate independent professional advice prior to relying on or entering any commitment based on these views. Unless acknowledged as being endorsed by QuIHN, views expressed are not those of QuIHN.

Links from this social media site to other sites are not endorsed by QuIHN and QuIHN is not accountable for the content on linked sites or your access to those sites via the links. QuIHN accepts no responsibility for the information or content of sites that are accessed by links from the QuIHN social media site.