Legal & Privacy

Yes — a current referral from your general practitioner or specialist is required for all initial consultations. This ensures you are eligible for a Medicare rebate and allows our surgeons to provide comprehensive, coordinated care.

Appointments can be scheduled by contacting our experienced administrative team via phone, email, or our secure online enquiry form. We will accommodate your preferred appointment time wherever possible.

Kindly bring your referral letter, Medicare card, private health insurance details, relevant imaging or test results, and a current list of medications. Although it is not necessary, some patients also find that bringing a suitable support person to the consultation is a great comfort.

Our practice is conveniently located inside the Gold Coast Private Hospital (Ground Floor Suite 7) with paid parking available onsite for your convenience. Full location and access details are available on our Contact Us page.

Your specialist surgeon will personally discuss results with you during a review appointment. Urgent or significant findings will be communicated to you promptly via telephone.

We appreciate early notice for appointment changes. Please contact us at least 24 hours in advance if you need to reschedule or cancel, as a cancellation fee may apply for missed or late-notice appointments.

Our practice is a private billing specialist practice. While Medicare rebates apply with a valid referral, bulk billing is not routinely offered.

Yes — a detailed, itemised estimate will be provided following your consultation. This will outline expected fees for your procedure, including surgical, anaesthetic, and hospital costs where applicable.

We work with all major Australian private health insurers. Coverage varies by fund and policy, so we recommend confirming your level of cover and any out-of-pocket expenses directly with your health fund prior to scheduling surgery.

Payment for surgical procedures is typically required prior to your admission. If you foresee any difficulty, please speak with our practice manager.

We accept EFTPOS, Visa, and Mastercard. Consultation fees are payable in full on the day of your appointment.

When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our Doctors and practice staff to access and use your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible healthcare.

The information we will collect about you includes your:

• Names, date of birth, addresses, 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

Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to manage your health. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (e.g. staff training).

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.

Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways:

When you make your first appointment, our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration.

Ambient Listening & Intelligent Clinical Documentation

With your explicit consent, your treating practitioner may use an intelligent listening program during your consultation. These programs securely capture spoken clinical information in real-time to assist with accurate medical documentation and improve the efficiency and quality of your care.

Different practitioners within our practice may use different software providers, all of which comply with Australian privacy legislation and industry standards for data security and storage. These programs do not record entire consultations verbatim but securely transcribe medically relevant information under the direct control of your treating specialist.

You will always be asked for consent before the use of any ambient listening system, and you may withdraw this consent at any time without affecting your care.

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 via social media.

In some circumstances, 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:

• Your guardian or responsible person
• Other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services
• Your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans' Affairs (as necessary)

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in various forms (e.g. paper records, electronic records, visual records such as X-rays, CT scans, videos and photos, and audio recordings) and via eHealth Services (e.g. electronic prescriptions, My Health Record, Hospital Medical Records).

We sometimes share your personal information:

• With third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies, medical software providers or information technology providers — these third parties store data only within Australia and are subject to Australian law and this policy
• With other hospital and healthcare providers/services
• When it is required by law (e.g. court subpoenas, mandatory notifiable diseases)
• When it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient's life, health or safety or public health or safety, or 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 a confidential dispute resolution process

Our practice may use your personal information to improve the quality of the services we offer to our patients through research and analysis of our patient data.

Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly to you without your express consent. If you do consent, you may opt out of direct marketing at any time by notifying our practice in writing.

Only people who 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, our practice will not share identifiable personal information with any third party without your consent.

We will not share your personal information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.

Your personal information may be stored at our practice in a range of forms including but not limited to: paper records, electronic records, visual records (X-rays, CT scans, videos and photos), and audio recordings.

Our practice stores all personal information securely. We use cyber-protected local and cloud electronic formats and hard copy formats in a secured environment.

You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information.

Our practice acknowledges patients may request access to their medical records. We require you to put this request in writing (email to: admin@gcspecialistsurgeons.com.au) and our practice will endeavour to respond within 30 days. A fee to cover administrative costs may be associated with this service.

Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will ask you to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and you should make such requests in writing (email to: admin@gcspecialistsurgeons.com.au).

We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you may have in writing. We will then attempt to resolve it within 30 days, in accordance with our resolution procedures.

Please forward concerns to:

Email: admin@gcspecialistsurgeons.com.au
Address: Gold Coast Private Hospital, Ground Floor, Suite 7/14 Hill St, Southport QLD 4215
Phone: (07) 5563 1360

You may also contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). 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.

This privacy policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it remains in accordance with any legislative or operational changes. Patients will be advised of amended policies at a subsequent appointment, and an up-to-date policy will be displayed at our patient reception.