North East Family Medicine maintains health records for our patients. These may include personal information, medical history, consultation notes, pathology/radiology results, referrals and specialist letters.
You have a right to access your health information. Generally, this is requested when you are changing GP clinics, and wish to provide your new GP with your records from North East Family Medicine. In limited circumstances when the information could be thought harmful for the patient or others, North East Family Medicine can refuse to provide access to some parts of a heath record, as permitted by law.
Where a patient is provided with access to their medical record, it may be desirable for the usual treating GP to be available to clarify its contents and to discuss any concerns with the patient. Alternatively it may be appropriate to refer the patient to the original author of a record (such as when health information is received by a specialist).
We would usually transfer your health information directly to your new GP clinic, at their request. Your new GP clinic will request the information they need to ensure a smooth handover of your care. Your new GP clinic will have a process for requesting your health information from us which you can discuss with them.
If you are a new patient to North East Family Medicine and want to request your health information from your previous clinic, then please ask your doctor for a Medical Record Transfer Request form.
There is no fee to request access to your health information. In some instances, there may be a fee charged to you by North East Family Medicine for our time in collating your health information to provide to you or your new clinic. Any fee we propose to charge can be discussed with the practice manager, and is intended to only cover the administrative costs of our team completing the task. The fees are not covered by Medicare or health funds. There is more information about access to health information and maximum fees for access here https://www2.health.vic.gov.au/about/legislation/health-records-act.
Requesting Access to Your Health Records
North East Family Medicine requires all requests for health information to be in writing, and proof of your identification must be provided. In the first instance, you or your new GP clinic should send an email to admin@northeastfamilymedicine.com.au, setting out what health information is being requested. We will respond to your request as soon as we can, but it may take up to 30 days.
