At Family Planning Tasmania, our patients’ health, safety and comfort is our number one priority. This means ensuring our patients’ privacy is protected is fundamental to the way we operate.
Family Planning Tasmania is committed to protecting and upholding the right to privacy of our patients, staff, volunteers, Board members and representatives of agencies we deal with. In particular Family Planning Tasmania is committed to protecting and upholding the rights of our patients to privacy in the way we collect, store and use information about you, your needs and the services we provide to you.
Family Planning Tasmania requires staff, volunteers and Board members to be consistent and careful in the way we manage what is written and said about individuals and how we decide who can see or hear this information.
Family Planning Tasmania follows the guidelines of the Australian Privacy Principles in our information management practices.
The Information you disclose to us when you visit our clinic can be very personal and sensitive in nature. Disclosing this information can help our clinicians help you in the most effective way possible. You can choose not to disclose personal information, however it may prevent our staff from giving you the most relevant information to you. In this Statement, we outline how we protect your privacy.
Our commitment to you
This Privacy Statement outlines our commitments to protecting privacy. Family Planning Tasmania will ensure that:
- we meet our legal and ethical obligations as an employer and service provider in relation to protecting the privacy of patients and organisational personnel
- as a patient, you are provided with information about your rights regarding privacy
- patients and organisational personnel are provided with privacy when they are being interviewed or discussing matters of a personal or sensitive nature
- all staff, Board members and volunteers understand what is required in meeting these obligations
This Statement conforms to the Federal Privacy Act (1988) and the Australian Privacy Principles which govern the collection, use and storage of personal information.
This Statement will apply to all records, whether hard copy or electronic, containing personal information about individuals, and to interviews or discussions of a sensitive personal nature. It also applies to any data that is collected for promotional purposes.
Procedures
Dealing with personal information
In dealing with personal information, Family Planning Tasmania staff will:
- ensure privacy for patients, staff, volunteers or Board members when they are being interviewed or discussing matters of a personal or sensitive nature
- collect and store only that personal information that is necessary for the functioning of the organisation and its activities
- use fair and lawful ways to collect personal information
- collect personal information only by consent from an individual
- ensure that people know what sort of personal information is held, what purposes it is held it for and how it is collected, used, disclosed and who will have access to it
- ensure that personal information collected or disclosed is accurate, complete and up-to-date, and provide access to any individual to review information or correct wrong information about themselves
- take reasonable steps to protect all personal information from misuse and loss and from unauthorised access, modification or disclosure
- destroy or permanently de-identify personal information no longer needed after legal requirements for retaining documents have expired.
Privacy information for patients
At your first visit to one of our clinics (if appropriate), you will be told what information is being collected, how your privacy will be protected and your rights in relation to this information.
Privacy for interviews and personal discussions
To ensure privacy for patients or staff when discussing sensitive or personal matters, the organisation will:
- provide private interview spaces
- make phone calls in private areas
- avoid the use of names when making or taking phone calls or making appointments in public areas
Participants in research projects
People being invited to participate in a research project must be:
- given a choice about participating or not
- given the right to withdraw at any time
- informed about the purpose of the research project, the information to be collected, and how information they provide will be used
- given copies of any subsequent publications
The collection of personal information will be limited to that which is required for the conduct of the project. Individual participants will not be identified. Organisational participants in research projects will generally be identified in Family Planning Tasmania research, unless the nature of a particular project requires anonymity or an organisation specifically requests it.
Direct Marketing Communications
You can subscribe via opt-in mailing list on this website and you will receive our newsletter. If you are included on our mailing lists you may opt out at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link on the email received or using the form below to ask to be removed from the list.
Corrections
If you believe that the information we have about you is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, please contact us.
Complaints
You have the right to access your information, or withdraw your information at any point. If you have a complaint about the privacy of your personal information, please contact us at feedback@fpt.asn.au. We will consider the details and attempt to resolve it in accordance with our complaints handling procedures.
If you are dissatisfied with our handling of a complaint or the outcome the Tasmanian Ombudsman accepts complaints in relation to the Personal Information and Protection Act 2004 (Tas). This legislation covers the Tasmanian public sector, including public hospitals.
MyChoice App Privacy Policy
Family Planning Tasmania has developed a specific privacy policy for the use of our App – MyChoice.
Find the detailed policy as a PDF document for download below.
