COVID-19 Vaccines
Important update 16 March 2021
Please read this information before proceeding to book your appointment
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will be available at Double Bay Doctors in Week 1 of Phase B, from Monday 22 March 2021.
Double Bay Doctors patients will have priority access to book a bulk billed COVID-19 vaccine appointment, but any eligible member in the community is welcome to receive their COVID-19 vaccination at Double Bay Doctors.
Dedicated COVID-19 vaccine clinics will be running most days and we will also offer after-hours COVID-19 vaccine appointments in the weeks ahead.
The Australian Government is responsible for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and for providing Double Bay Doctors with COVID-19 vaccine stock each week. At this time there is a shortage of vaccine stock which means eligible patients may not be able to book a vaccine immediately. We anticipate vaccine supply will improve in the months ahead.
To manage the vaccine shortage, we have created a Reservation List to manage vaccine stock levels and ensure eligible patients can easily book their vaccine when we receive more vaccines.
If you are unable to book a COVID-19 vaccination appointment due to a shortage of vaccine stock, you will be offered the opportunity to join the Reservation List. Once on the Reservation List you will receive an SMS invitation link to book your vaccine appointment as soon as vaccine stock becomes available. You will have 24 hours to book your vaccine appointment after receiving your SMS invitation, before the reserved vaccine is offered to another patient.
Please note: NSW Health has not released any information about when Phase 2A of COVID-19 vaccinations will commence. We will keep you updated as soon as we learn more.
Who can book?
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At this stage, you must be an eligible Phase 1B patient to book a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, or to join the Reservation List for a vaccine, so please confirm you are eligible before attempting to book your appointment, or before joining the Reservation List. See here for information on Phase 1B. You will be required to demonstrate your eligibility to access the vaccine under Phase 1B.
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Eligible Phase 1B patients who have NOT received a vaccine, including the 2021 Flu Vaccine, within the last 14 days.
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ou must hold a valid Australian Medicare card. Non Medicare card holders are required to access the vaccine at a public vaccination site.
Critical updates
Critical updates at a glance
+ We have changed our opening hours. Please click here for information.
+ The majority of appointments are now Telehealth consults.
+ All eligible Telehealth appointments will be bulk billed.
+ Government flu vaccines are now available. Please click here to book.
+ No bookings for private flu vaccine clinics available. Please click here for more information.
+ Pathology is closed. Please click here for more information.
+ Any patients who are experiencing respiratory symptoms should not attend the practice. Please book a Telehealth consultation first.
+ We reserve the right to ban any patient who does not follow our appointment booking guidelines. They are implemented for the safety of the whole community.
COVID-19 Vaccine Reservation List
If you are unable to book a COVID-19 vaccination appointment you will be offered the opportunity to join the Reservation List during the booking process.
When you have joined the Reservation List you will receive an SMS invitation link to book your vaccine appointment as soon as vaccine stock becomes available.
You will have 24 hours to book your vaccine appointment after receiving your SMS invitation, before the reserved vaccine is offered to another patient. If you don't book your appointment within 24 hours, you will need to rejoin the Reservation List. Our reception team will not be able to access or manage the Reservation List, so unfortunately they will not be able to assist you to secure a vaccine.
Please note: Families wishing to reserve vaccines for multiple eligible family members must join the Reservation List individually for each family member.
Summary of critical updates
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To safeguard the community and our team of doctors and staff, the majority of patients will need to first book Telehealth consultations before visiting the practice in person.
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The practice will continue to be open, but you will not be able to come in to see your doctor unless you have had a Telehealth consultation and your doctor has determined that a face-to-face examination is required.
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Some exclusions are childhood immunisations, whooping cough immunisations, flu immunisations, antenatal/postnatal care consultations and emergency presentations. Please click here for more information.
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Any patients who are experiencing respiratory symptoms e.g. sore throat, runny nose, fever, cough, should not attend the practice and first book a Telehealth consultation.
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Face to face consultations for patients with respiratory symptoms will be available at the practice during specific times in the day if your doctor deems it necessary during your Telehealth consultation.
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If you require a script or referral please book a Telehealth consult. Please click here for more information.
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We have paused private flu vaccine clinics awaiting an update on private flu stocks which have experienced serious disruption.
Details of critical updates
Introduction of Telehealth for majority of standard consultations
The practice will continue to stay open, but you will not be able to come in to see your doctor unless you have had a Telehealth consultation and your doctor has determined that a face-to-face examination is required.
There are several specific appointment types that you can still book online (in addition to Telehealth):
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Flu Vaccinations (Private) - Appointment to visit the practice for a flu vaccine clinic: prepayment of $20 for the vaccine is required at time of booking (currently paused while we confirm more stock)
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Flu Vaccinations (Government) - Appointment to visit the practice for a free flu vaccine clinic, patients 65+ can also receive their pneumovax vaccine at this time
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Childhood Vaccinations - Appointment to visit the practice for your child to receive their scheduled childhood immunisations
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Antenatal Appointments - Appointment to visit the practice for pregnant women
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Postnatal Appointments - Appointment to visit the practice for postpartum women (eg. 6 week checks, breastfeeding issues)
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Boostrix Vaccinations - Appointment to visit the practice for patients requiring a whooping cough vaccine - e.g. pregnant women and close contacts of newborn babies
At this time you will not be able to book any other appointment types online.
For the safety of our community and staff, it is vital that any patients experiencing any respiratory symptoms do not book consultations to visit the practice for any of the above appointment types still available online. Please book a Telehealth consultation.
We are also requesting that well patients do not bring along any family members (e.g. children) who may have any respiratory symptoms.
Respiratory symptoms include any of the following: shortness of breath, cough, fever, runny nose or sore throat.
Scripts and referrals
If you require a script or referral you can discuss this with your doctor during a Telehealth consult. See further information here.
Cost
All eligible Telehealth appointments will be bulk billed.
Private Telehealth consultations are available for patients without Medicare. See further information here.
Flu Vaccines
We have experienced unprecedented demand for flu vaccines this year.
We correctly anticipated the increase in demand and ordered sufficient privatet vaccine stock. However, US customs is currently refusing to release a large volume of flu vaccine stock destined for Australia.
For now we have had to pause booking any more flu vaccine consultations while we await an update on vaccine stock availability in the weeks ahead. We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this may cause some patients.
Any patients with existing flu vaccine clinic appointments should attend their appointments as booked.
An email we sent to patients last Friday 20 March offered patients the choice to book a standard private appointment to get their flu vaccine. However, due to this unforeseen supply constraint, only patients that attend a dedicated flu vaccine clinic can receive a flu vaccine.
Emergencies
If you are experiencing an emergency we will be here to help. Accidents requiring wound care, patients experiencing asthma attack, heart conditions, anaphylaxis etc can continue to access immediate care at the practice but we ask patients to phone ahead where possible.
Coronavirus information
Who is eligible to access the vaccine under Phase 1B?
To ensure the most vulnerable in the community are offered protection first, the COVID-19 vaccine will be offered in a phased program to specific groups of the Australian population.
Please note that you will be required to demonstrate your eligibility to access the vaccine under Phase 1B.
Phase 1B
If you meet any of the following criteria you fall into the Phase 1B priority group:
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Adults 70 years & over
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Other healthcare workers (not included in Phase 1A)
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people ATSI >55 years
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Younger adults with an underlying medical condition, including those with a disability
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Critical & high-risk workers including defense, police, fire, emergency services
You can determine your eligibility for Phase 1B via the following resource:
https://covid-vaccine.healthdirect.gov.au/eligibility
Detailed information about eligible classes under Phase 1B
Healthcare workers
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Individuals employed in the medical profession, including allied health professionals, aged care and disability workers
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All public and private hospital staff
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Healthcare workers in private practice
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Community pharmacy staff
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Healthcare workers providing in-home and community care, including centre-based care
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Workforce supporting medical practitioners in a clinical setting, including students on placement
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Onsite administrative staff in healthcare settings
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Cleaners, kitchen staff and other ancillary staff in healthcare settings
Underlying health conditions
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Poorly controlled blood pressure (defined as two or more pharmacologic agents for blood pressure control, regardless of recent readings)
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Heart disease - including Ischaemic heart disease, valvular heart disease, cardiomyopathies and pulmonary hypertension
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Those with severe mental health conditions - including schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder
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Chronic inflammatory conditions on medical treatments - including: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and similar who are being treated with Disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or immune-suppressive or immunomodulatory therapies. Generally not inclusive of people living with osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome or similar non-immunocompromising inflammatory conditions.
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Chronic lung disease - including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, cystic fibrosis, interstitial lung disease. Does not include Mild or moderate asthma
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Diabetes
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Severe obesity with a BMI ≥ 40kg/m2
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Solid organ transplant recipients who are on immune suppressive therapy
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Adult survivors of childhood cancers
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Bone marrow transplant recipients or those on chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy or those on immune suppressive therapy for graft versus host disease
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Haematological diseases or cancers including leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma - diagnosed within the past 5 years or on recently completed active treatment including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy or targeted anti-cancer therapy or with advanced disease regardless of treatment
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Non-haematological cancer - diagnosed within the past 5 years or on recently completed active treatment including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy or targeted anti-cancer therapy or with advanced disease regardless of treatment
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Primary or acquired immunodeficiency - including congenital causes of immunodeficiency and HIV/AIDS
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Chronic renal (kidney) failure with a eGFR of <44mL/min (Does not include mild-moderate chronic kidney disease)
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Chronic liver disease
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Some neurological conditions - including Stroke, dementia, Multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy. Does not inclused migraine or cluster headaches
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Those with Down syndrome, muscular dystrophy, traumatic brain and spinal cord injury
Critical and high risk workers
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Emergency services personnel, including frontline police officers, fire and rescue personnel, corrective services officers
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Rural Fire Service and State Emergency Service volunteers
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Active Australian Defence Force personnel
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Australian Government officials about to be deployed or currently deployed overseas on official government business
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Workers involved in manufacture of AstraZeneca vaccine and distribution/delivery of COVID-19 vaccines
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Workers at licensed meat processing businesses (this does not include retail settings, or butchers)
Essential carers
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Essential carers (paid and unpaid) including carers who are also family members of someone with disability or an elderly person.
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Disability support volunteers who provide support to people in their homes, respite care, educational, employment and leisure settings.
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People with a disability attending centre-based services (e.g. day programs, supported employment).
Licensed meat processing workers
This class is for workers directly involved in the manufacturing and distribution process, where the work is in a cold environment and workers are unable to maintain physical distancing requirements. It does not include retail workers including fishmongers and butchers. tail workers including butcher shops, fishmongers
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Abattoir workers, including attending veterinarians
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Workers in boning rooms
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Smallgoods manufacturers
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Cold chain transport workforce
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Seafood processing
How do I confirm my eligibilty under Phase 1B?
You will need to provide documentation to verify your eligibility under Phase 1B.
If you are an existing Double Bay Doctors patient
We will be able to review your medical history to confirm your health status.
If you are eligible under another category you will need to supply proof of employment, or a letter from your employer.
If you are NOT a Double Bay Doctors patient
You will need to bring a copy of your MyHealth Record/Health Summary, or a letter from your GP confirming your underlying medical condition.
If you are eligible under another category, you will need to supply proof of employment, or a letter from your employer.
What to bring your appointment
Dose 1 Vaccine: Please remember to bring:
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Photo ID;
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Your eligibility documentation, if relevant to you. Please refer to How do I confirm my eligibility under Phase 1 B;
Dose 2: Please remember to bring:
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Photo ID;
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Your Patient COVID-19 Immunisation booklet which will be issued to you when you receive your first vaccine.
Coronavirus testing clinics are operating around Australia. To determine if you are eligible for Coronavirus testing, please review the guidelines below.
We are not currently undertaking Coronavirus testing at Double Bay Doctors.
Frequently Asked Questions
Introduction
The purpose of this privacy policy is to provide you with information on how your personal and health information is collected and used and the circumstances in which we may share your information with third parties.
We are committed to protecting the privacy of patient information and to handling your personal information in a responsible manner in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012, the Australian Privacy Principles and relevant State and Territory privacy legislation (referred to as privacy legislation).
Why and when your consent is necessary
When you become a patient of a practitioner consulting from Bondi Doctors, you provide consent for practitioners and administrative staff consulting from or working at Bondi Doctors to access and use your personal and health information. Your personal information is only accessed by practitioners and staff in order to provide you with the highest level of healthcare and to keep you informed of health information that may be relevant to you. There are certain circumstances we may be required to share your personal information with third parties which are covered by this policy. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will seek additional consent from you to do this.
Why do we collect, use, hold and share your personal information?
Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding, and sharing your personal information is to provide you with a premium healthcare service and inform you about the healthcare services offered at Bondi Doctors. We also use personal information for activities directly related to the supply of healthcare services, such as Medicare claims, payments, online booking, clinic audits and accreditation. We also communicate with patients using secure SMS notifications. If you receive healthcare from practitioners consulting from Bondi Doctors it is a requirement that you consent to be contacted by SMS regarding your appointments, outstanding accounts and healthcare information.
What personal information do we collect?
For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, personal information may mean some, or all of the following: patient’s name, contact details, date of birth, other identification details, emergency contact details, medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors; Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes; healthcare identifiers; health fund details; bank account and/or credit card details, and payment history.
How do we collect your personal information?
We collect your personal information in the following ways:
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When you become a patient of Bondi Doctors you will be required to supply personal and demographic information, as well as health information such as allergies, health, and family history.
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When you make an appointment through our website or over the phone, you will be required to provide credit card details to secure your appointment.
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When booking your appointment online, you are required to enter your credit card details directly, without disclosing your details to our reception team.
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When booking with our reception team over the phone, they will enter your credit card details directly into the appointment booking software.
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Credit card details entered into our booking and payment software is stored by the Australian merchant bank Tyro. Bondi Doctors does not store your credit card details in our systems and instead will be issued an encrypted payment token from Tyro which can be used for payment of services you receive from Bondi Doctors or from practitioners consulting from Bondi Doctors.
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In the course of providing you health services, we may collect further personal information relevant to the supply of healthcare services.
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We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, telephone us, make an online appointment or communicate with us using social media.
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Personal information may also be collected from other sources when it is not practical or reasonable to collect it from you directly. This may include information from:
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Your guardian or responsible person;
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Other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services, and pathology and diagnostic imaging services;
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Your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary).
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Sharing your personal information
In some circumstances, we may be required to share your personal information. However, only people who need to access your information will be able to do so.
Other than in the course of providing healthcare services, or as otherwise described in this policy, Bondi Doctors will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.
We may be required to share your personal information in the following instances:
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To liaise with other healthcare providers and prepare relevant healthcare documentation including but not limited to Shared Health Summary, Event Summary and My Health Record related to the supply of healthcare services to you;
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In emergency situations to lessen or prevent a serious threat to you or another patient’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, or if you are unable to act on your own behalf due to a health condition, we may need to discuss your health information with relatives or emergency contacts, to ensure you receive necessary care;
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If required or authorised by law (e.g. Court subpoenas);
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If needed to assist in locating a missing person;
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To establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim;
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For the purpose of confidential dispute resolution process;
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If there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (for instance in the case of mandatory notification of certain diseases);
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Where Bondi Doctors is required to work with third parties for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies, or information technology providers. All third parties are required to comply with Australian Privacy Principles and this policy;
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We will not disclose your personal information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.
How do we store and protect your personal information?
Your personal and health information may be stored in various forms but is primarily retained in your secure electronic health record. Bondi Doctors maintains the highest level of confidentiality as is required for accreditation.
Bondi Doctors does not store your credit card information. The appointment booking software we use, is directly linked to the bank Tyro, which is an Australian Bank, Publicly Listed Company and is the largest provider of EFTPOS terminals in Australia outside of the big 4 Australian banks.
Tyro will store your credit card details using their bank grade encryption and provide Bondi Doctors with a unique encrypted digital token that we can charge for your consultation. This unique encrypted digital token can only be used by Bondi Doctors, therefore, in the unlikely event that our systems are compromised, your credit card details will remain secure.
Data quality and security
We will take reasonable steps to ensure that your personal information is accurate, complete, up-to-date, and relevant. For this purpose, our staff may ask you to confirm that your contact details are correct when you attend a consultation. Being able to contact you is necessary to ensure we can deliver care to you. We request that you let us know if any of the information we hold about you is incorrect or out-of-date.
Personal information that we hold is protected by:
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Securing our premises; and
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Placing passwords and varying access levels on databases to limit access and protect electronic information from unauthorised interference, access, modification and disclosure.
Where it is necessary to conduct a telehealth consultation from our doctors’ private premises, they will take reasonable steps to maintain a private and secure environment to conduct such consultations.
How can you access and correct your personal information at our clinic?
You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information.
All requests for access to personal information must be made in writing via email, and we will respond within a reasonable time.
Bondi Doctors takes all reasonable steps to maintain the accuracy of your personal information. We will ask you to verify that the personal information we hold about you is correct and current whenever you contact or attend the practice. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and you should make such requests in writing to info@bondidoctors.com
We may deny access to your medical records in certain circumstances permitted by law, for example, if disclosure may cause a serious threat to your health or safety. We will always tell you why access is denied and the options you have to respond to our decision.
How can you lodge a privacy-related complaint, and how will the complaint be handled?
If you have any concerns about the privacy of your information (including complaints about our use of the My Health Record system), please send us an email info@bondidoctors.com outlining your concerns.
Upon receiving your complaint, we will consider the details and attempt to resolve it in accordance with our complaints handling procedures
You may also contact the OAIC regarding privacy concerns. Generally, the OAIC will require you to give them time to respond before they will investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.
Dealing with us anonymously
You have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless it is impracticable for us to do so or unless we are required or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.