Northern Specialist Group
Last updated: [07 NOV 2026]

Northern Specialist Group (“NSG”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of our patients and website visitors. This policy explains how we collect, use, store and disclose your personal information, including health information.

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic) and its Health Privacy Principles.

1. What information we collect

When you become a patient, or use our website, we may collect:

• Personal details: your name, date of birth, gender, address, phone number and email address
• Health information: your medical history, referrals, test results, imaging, procedure reports, medications, allergies, family history and other information relevant to your care
• Identifiers and billing details: Medicare number, Department of Veterans’ Affairs number, pension or concession card details, and private health fund details
• Emergency contact and next of kin details
• Information you send us through our website contact form, by email, by phone or by fax
• Website usage information: see section 9

2. How we collect your information

Where practical, we collect information directly from you, for example when you fill in registration forms, attend an appointment, attend a telehealth consultation, call us, or use our website.

We may also collect information from third parties when this is needed for your care and you would reasonably expect it, or where the law allows. Examples include:

• your referring GP or specialist
• hospitals, pathology and imaging providers
• other health professionals involved in your care
• your guardian or responsible person
• Medicare, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs or your health fund, for billing purposes

3. Why we collect, use and hold your information

We collect, use and hold your personal information to:

• provide medical and surgical care, including consultations, procedures, telehealth and follow-up
• communicate with your referring doctor and other health professionals involved in your care
• manage appointments, reminders, recalls and procedure bookings
• process billing, Medicare claims and health fund claims
• meet our legal and professional obligations, including mandatory reporting
• respond to your enquiries and feedback
• carry out quality assurance, clinical audit, practice accreditation and complaint handling

If you do not provide the information we ask for, we may not be able to provide you with appropriate care or process your claims.

4. Who we share your information with

We disclose your information only for the purposes above, with your consent, or where the law requires or permits it. This may include:

• your referring GP and other doctors, hospitals and allied health providers involved in your care
• pathology, imaging and other diagnostic services
• Medicare, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and private health funds
• our service providers, such as practice software, IT support, secure messaging, telehealth and transcription services, who must keep your information confidential
• government agencies or courts where required by law, or where necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to someone’s life, health or safety

We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use your health information for marketing.

Overseas disclosure: we do not generally send personal information overseas. Some of our IT or cloud service providers may store data outside Australia. Where this occurs, we take reasonable steps to make sure your information is protected to a standard consistent with the APPs.

5. My Health Record

With your consent, we may access or upload information to your My Health Record. You can control access to your My Health Record at myhealthrecord.gov.au.

6. How we store and protect your information

We store your information in electronic and paper records. We take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, change or disclosure. These steps include:

• secure, password-protected practice systems with access limited to authorised staff
• confidentiality obligations for all staff and contractors
• secure storage of physical records
• secure destruction of records when they are no longer needed

Under Victorian law, we generally keep health records for at least 7 years after your last visit. For patients under 18, we keep them until at least age 25.

7. Accessing and correcting your information

You have the right to ask for access to the personal and health information we hold about you, and to ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date or incomplete.

To make a request, please contact our Privacy Officer (see section 11). We will respond within 30 days. We may ask you to verify your identity. We may charge a reasonable fee for providing copies, but not for making the request. If we refuse access in the limited circumstances the law allows, we will tell you why in writing.

8. Communicating with us

• Email and online forms are not completely secure. Please do not send detailed or sensitive medical information through our website contact form or by standard email. Call us on 1300 678 474 instead.
• Telehealth consultations are conducted using secure platforms. We do not record consultations without your consent.
• Reminders: we may send appointment reminders by SMS, phone or email. Let us know if you prefer not to receive them.

9. Our website

Contact form
When you use our contact form, we collect the details you enter (name, email, phone number, topic and message). We use them only to respond to your enquiry, and we send them to our reception team by email.

Cookies
Our website uses essential cookies to function. We do not use advertising cookies.

Third-party services
Our website uses:

• Google Maps, to show our location
• Google Fonts, for typography

These services may collect technical information such as your IP address and browser type, under Google’s privacy policy (policies.google.com/privacy).

External links
Our website links to other websites, such as some of our consultants’ personal websites and the Better Health Channel. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those websites.

10. Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer first. We will acknowledge your complaint promptly and aim to resolve it within 30 days.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact either of these:

• Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC): www.oaic.gov.au · 1300 363 992
• Health Complaints Commissioner (Victoria): hcc.vic.gov.au · 1300 582 113

11. Contact us

Privacy Officer
Northern Specialist Group
Northern Private Hospital, Level 2, Suite 11, 12 Osburn Place, Epping VIC 3076

• Phone: 1300 678 474
• Fax: 03 7049 4042
• Email: reception@northernspecialistgroup.com.au

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The current version is always available on our website and at reception.