Privacy Collection Statement

Publication date: Version 1.0  May 2021

We are committed to protecting your privacy and complying with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and other relevant state laws about the management of personal information. More information can be found in our main Privacy Policy.

Why we collect your personal information

Brisbane City Psychologists provides services and facilities to independent psychologists and psychology practices. We collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information to carry out functions or activities such as:

    • providing services and facilities to a psychologist or psychology practice based at BCP
    • assessing whether a psychologist or psychology practice is an appropriate service for you
    • sending you communications via SMS or email to, for example, remind you about appointments with your psychologist, provide you with treatment resources and questionnaires and send you a copy of your invoices
    • enabling you to receive the correct entitlements to benefits and funding for psychology services from third-party payers and to comply with their requirements
    • responding to your enquiries, requests or feedback
    • updating your records and keeping your information up to date.

If you have any concerns about the personal information we have asked you to provide please let us know.

How we collect your personal information

Brisbane City Psychologists will, where practicable, collect information directly from you. We collect your personal information mainly when you deal with us over the phone, have contact with us in person, give or send us a letter or document or when you interact with us online via our websites (such as www.brisbanecitypsychologist.com.au and www.bcpsyc.com.au), email, SMS, and social media channels (please note that social media channels will handle your personal information for their own purposes and have their own Privacy Policy). We may also collect personal information about you, including sensitive information, indirectly from other sources such as your GP or other healthcare professionals, government agencies administering your entitlements and benefits, a carer, a legal professional or a person responsible for your healthcare decisions. If you want to share information that includes another person’s information in which that person will be identifiable, you must seek permission from the individual and let them know about our Privacy Policy.

How we hold your personal information

Brisbane City Psychologists collects and holds your personal information in electronic form. Most of the information collected is stored in the corresponding psychologist or psychology practice’s systems. We also hold some of your personal information securely on our servers and computer systems. Some information may be collected in paper-based documents which may be converted to electronic form and the original paper copy destroyed in a secure manner when we no longer need it. Any personal information retained in paper-based documents is stored in our secure archive facilities in Brisbane. We are legally required to hold clients’ personal information for a minimum of 7 years from the date of last entry in your record or if you are a minor until you attain or would have attained 25 years of age.

Disclosure of your personal information

There are circumstances where we may be permitted or required by law to disclose your personal information to third parties. Common situations in which we may disclose your personal information to third parties are when:

  1. you have consented to the disclosure; or
  2. we reasonably believe that disclosure is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or safety; or
  3. you would reasonably expect your personal information to be disclosed and disclosure to that third party is for a purpose directly related to the primary purpose for which your personal information was collected (see Why we collect your personal information), for example, to the ambulance service, government agencies and other third-party payers administering subsidies and benefits to which you may be entitled such as Medicare and Department of Veterans Affairs; or
  4. it is required or authorised by or under Australian law or a court/tribunal order.

We engage external service providers to us for the purposes of providing services to your psychologist and managing our business, including software providers, payment systems operators, IT and data security service providers, website hosting service providers, our insurers, our professional advisors such as accountants, bookkeepers, and lawyers. Your personal information may be used and disclosed to them to facilitate these arrangements.

Your personal information will not be used, sold, rented, or disclosed for any other purpose. Where we have collected a government-related identifier, such as your Medicare or DVA number, we will only use or disclose that identifier as required or permitted by law.

Some of the information collected by BCP may be stored in systems that utilise data hosting facilities outside of Australia. Any overseas recipient of your information may not be subject to any privacy obligations or to any principles similar to the Australian Privacy Principles. BCP will not be accountable under the Privacy Act for any breach by the overseas recipient and you may not be able to seek redress in the overseas jurisdiction. In addition, the overseas recipient may be subject to foreign laws that could compel the disclosure of personal information to a third party, such as an overseas authority.

During the novel Coronavirus outbreak, if you or one of our staff or any of the psychologists based at our practice have tested positive for COVID-19, we may be required to inform local health authorities that you have been in the practice. If required, we will only provide the minimum information necessary and required by the health authorities for contact tracing purposes. Please check the following In-person appointments at the practice during the Coronavirus outbreak Terms and Conditions for more information.

Privacy Policy

Our detailed Privacy Policy includes further information on how you can access and seek correction of your personal information, how we handle data breaches, how you can complain about a breach of your privacy. The policy also contains information about how we will deal with a complaint.

Queries, complaints, requests for access or correction should be made in writing and sent to:

By post:
Privacy Officer
Brisbane City Psychologists – Bcpsyc Pty Ltd ATF Brisbane City Psychologists Services Trust
Level 18, 141 Queen Street, Brisbane QLD 4000

By email:
privacy@bcpsyc.com.au

Meanings

References to “Brisbane City Psychologists”, “BCP”, “we”, “us” and “our” are references to Bcpsyc Pty Ltd ATF Brisbane City Psychologists Services Trust ABN 79 409 261 282. References to “you” and “your” are references to any individual about whom we collect personal information. References to “psychologist” and “psychology practice” are references to any independent psychologist or psychology practice that bases or based their own independent psychology practice at Brisbane City Psychologists and whom we provide or provided services and facilities.