Patient Privacy and Accessing Clinical Records

MercyAscot complies with the Health Information Privacy Code 2020. The code recognises that people expect their health information:

• to be kept confidential, because it was probably collected in a situation of confidence and trust
• to be treated as sensitive, because it may include details about body, lifestyle, emotions, and behaviour
• may have ongoing use if it becomes clinically relevant even a long time after it was initially collected
• will be used for the purposes for which it was originally collected, and they will be told about those purposes.

To ensure we can provide services of an acceptable standard to you and continuity of care for you, we may collect relevant information from, and/or share relevant information with other medical practitioners or healthcare service providers involved in your care. This may include your treating specialists, laboratories, diagnostic service providers, other treating health services and hospitals, and your nominated General Practitioner (GP).

We may access and use your information before your care is delivered to ensure continuity of care and that we enhance your pathway of care whilst you are with us.

We may use the information we collect and/or hold about you to undertake retrospective reviews of care delivered to you while you were under our care and undertake various audits of the quality of care to ensure our patients are getting the best care at MercyAscot.

If you do not want your health information used or shared for any of the purposes described above, please inform the pre-admission nurse.

Access and correction of patient data

You have the right to request copies of any data we hold about you (or the clinical record of someone you are the guardian or agent for) and to request changes to inaccurate information. We will need to receive your consent to be able to process your request. Please follow the below steps to access your clinical records:

• Download and complete the Clinical Record Release form
• Attach your signed photo ID, such as a driver's licence or passport
• Either hand deliver, post, or scan and email, the completed form and your copy of photo ID – to the physical or email address on the form 
• Clinical Records may contact you if required, to confirm this request, and your identity 

All requests for information must be accompanied by a form and relevant proof of identification.

For more information on requesting your clinical records, please contact the Clinical Records team on [email protected]

As per the Privacy Act 2020, we have up to 20 working days to process your request from the date we receive all required documentation.