Privacy Policy

At Epping Medical Practice we recognise the importance of privacy protection. This policy explains how we deal with any personal information you might give us while visiting this website.

Your medical record is a separate matter, and it is covered by our practice privacy policy. You can ask for a copy at reception. Reception can go through it with you in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien or Teochew.

What This Website Collects When You Visit It

This site sets no cookies. There is no analytics code on it and no advertising, and nothing here follows you to any other website. Reading these pages tells us nothing about who you are.

Two things on the page come from Google rather than from us. One is the typeface and the other is the map at the bottom of the home page. Your browser fetches both from Google directly, which means Google sees your IP address when the page loads. Everything else is served from our own host.

What Our Web Host Records

Our host keeps the ordinary access log that every website keeps. It records the address a request came from, the date and time, the page asked for and the browser that asked for it. We use it to check the site is up and to see which pages people read. We never match it against your medical record, and we make no attempt to work out who a visitor is from it.

The Booking Form

The booking form runs in your browser and goes no further. Nothing you type is sent to us while you fill it in, and nothing is kept on this site. When you press Submit, the page opens your own email app with the request already written out. Whether it is sent is your decision. If you do send it, it arrives in the practice mailbox and reception reads it there.

One field on that form does ask about your health: the reason for the visit. It is there so reception can put you with the right practitioner for long enough, and a few words are all it is for - "back pain", "repeat script", "vaccination for travel".

It travels by email, which is not a secure channel, so please keep it to that. Test results, photographs of a problem and anything you would rather not have sitting in a mailbox belong in the consultation, not on the form. If what you need to say does not fit inside a few words, telephone reception on (02) 9717 1888 and book that way instead.

When We Disclose Information About You

We do not sell your information and we do not hand it to anyone for their own purposes. It goes further than the practice only with your consent, or where the law requires the disclosure.

How We Handle Email and Text Messages

Neither is a secure channel. Apart from the few words the booking form asks for, described above, please do not send us clinical details, test results or photographs of a medical problem by email or text. Where the answer involves anything clinical, we will telephone you instead.

We keep email for as long as we need it to deal with your enquiry, and for as long as the law requires us to. The practice mailbox is a shared one, read by reception and by the practice manager, so treat anything you send to it as read by the practice rather than by one person.

If Something We Hold About You Is Wrong

Tell reception and we will check it and put it right. Please also tell us when your phone number or address changes: a recall about an abnormal result is only as good as the number in your file.

How to Contact Us About This Policy

Ask for the practice manager on (02) 9717 1888, or write to G01, 12-14 Bridge Street, Epping NSW 2121. We will acknowledge a complaint within five working days and answer it within 30 days. If our answer does not settle the matter, you can take it to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on 1300 363 992 (oaic.gov.au).