Privacy Policy

Rural Health West Ltd ABN 29 123 188 367 (“Rural Health West”, “we”, “us”, “our”) is bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (“Act”) and the Australian Privacy Principles (“APPs”).

This policy sets out how we manage your personal information.

 

What personal information do we collect and hold?

Rural Health West collects and holds personal information which enables us to operate our business, and  deliver programs throughout Western Australia to attract and support rural and remote health professionals.

If you are a person seeking services from us or participating in our programs, we will collect such personal information as is needed to provide those services.  From health professionals, and other persons who work in rural health, the personal information we collect may (depending on the type of services or program) include:

  • name and contact details;
  • age, date of birth and gender;
  • occupation and qualifications;
  • resume and written references;
  • employment letters and performance appraisals;
  • your professional history such as your previous positions and professional experience;
  • criminal record;
  • health information;
  • financial information; and
  • limited details of racial or ethnic origin (eg country of origin, and whether of Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander origin).

If you are an employee or contractor of Rural Health West, we collect personal information relevant to your role, which may include:

  • name and contact details;
  • age, date of birth and gender;
  • resume and written references;
  • employment letters and performance appraisals;
  • payroll information; and
  • your professional history such as your previous positions and professional experience. ‍

 

How we collect and hold your personal information

We collect personal information in various ways; in most cases from you directly unless this would be unreasonable or impracticable:

  • We may ask you to submit items including forms and supporting documents such as resumes, submissions, interviews and business transactions.
  • We may also collect personal information about you from third parties if you have agreed that they can provide us with this information.
  • We also use cookies to help customise your experience on the website. A cookie is a small text file stored in your computer’s memory or on your hard disk for a pre-defined period of time. As a general rule, it is not possible to identify you personally from our use of cookies.

Rural Health West will take all reasonable effort to keep secure and protect personal information (whether in hard or electronic format) against loss, misuse, unauthorised access, unauthorised modification and unauthorised disclosure. We have security processes in place to secure database and server access, and we take steps to ensure that electronic data is backed up. We follow principles outlined in the Australian Government’s mitigation strategies against cyber threats, known as the ‘Essential Eight’.

Hard copy paperwork is stored in secure locations.

Our staff respect the confidentiality of personal information and the privacy of individuals and organisations and will only access information to perform work related business.

When we no longer require your personal information for a permitted purpose (whether primary or secondary), we will securely destroy or de-identify it in accordance with Australian laws

 

Purposes for which we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information

Where we hold personal information that was collected for a particular (primary) purpose we will ordinarily use or disclose it only for that purpose and not for any other (secondary) purpose unless you have consented, or we are otherwise permitted or required to do so under the APPs, the Act, or another law.

If you are a person seeking services from us or participating in our programs, your personal information may (depending on the type of services or program) be used to:

  • Deliver services that you request from us
  • Provide you with further information about our other services and programs (as updated from time to time)
  • Personalise and customise your experience with Rural Health West
  • Facilitate communication with you

There is a possibility that your personal information may also be used for secondary purposes relating to Rural Health West’s services, programs and objects more generally; for example:

  • Managing and enhancement of our services and programs
  • Annual workforce surveys
  • Longitudinal studies (tracking practitioners from their tertiary education, through their training and professional careers, up to retirement)
  • Tracking workforce trends
  • Mentoring and network opportunities
  • Support to rural health practitioners and practices
  • Education and CPD

Wherever reasonably practicable, we will de-identify your information before using (or disclosing it to any third party) it for such purposes. However, the extent of the de-identification will vary between projects; and you consent to the possibility that in limited cases, some of the information used or disclosed for these secondary purposes may still be considered ‘personal information’ under the Act.

If you are an employee or contractor, we use your personal information for the purpose of managing and administering your role, and/or the duties or services you perform for us.

Rural Health West generally does not disclose personal information to third parties except:

  • Where you participate in a program that necessarily entails the sharing of your personal information – such as recruitment services, locum placements and similar.
  • For compliance with our legal obligations, and/or if properly directed to do so by an appropriate government, regulatory or statutory body (including a court or tribunal).
  • Data – aggregated and de-identified where reasonably practicable – may be provided to relevant agencies for the purposes of facilitating health and medical workforce planning or for assisting in or developing services and service delivery that we consider to be of benefit to our stakeholders and consistent with our company’s objects.

 

Access to your personal information

You have a right to access your personal information. Any such request must be in writing; and proof of identity will also be required to ensure that personal information is provided only to the correct individual or organisation.

We will always endeavour to meet your request within a reasonable time, though in some circumstances, your request for access may be denied – in which case we will give you written reasons. Relevant circumstances could include:

  • if we no longer hold any personal information about you;
  • if your request is frivolous or vexatious;
  • if the information requested relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings and would not ordinarily be disclosed as part of those proceedings; and
  • if providing access would be unlawful, or the denying of access is required or allowed by law.

We may charge you a reasonable fee for access to some types of information, limited to an amount to recoup our costs. Charges may include document retrieval, photocopying and delivery costs.

 

Correcting your personal information

It is important that the personal information we hold is accurate, up-to-date, and complete. Rural Health West will take all reasonable effort to ensure that personal information is maintained in a current, accurate and complete manner.

Should you wish to update your personal information you can do so by contacting Rural Health West and outlining the information to be updated.

We will take steps to ensure your personal information is correct and up to date by amending our records when you inform us that your information has changed.

 

Overseas (cross border) disclosure

Rural Health West’s standard practice is that we do not disclose personal information to third parties overseas without the individual’s consent.

From time to time, however, we may engage external service providers who are located overseas and/or who store (or may store) information outside of Australia. For example, our data storage providers, web hosts or cloud-based service providers may use servers, systems, and cloud computing facilities located outside of Australia. Whilst the use of external service providers will not always involve an overseas disclosure of personal information, by providing us with your personal information you consent to the possibility that it may be stored or transmitted onto overseas servers by third parties who will be obligated to follow their own privacy policies and any relevant and applicable laws.

Prior to knowingly disclosing or allowing disclosure of personal information to overseas recipients, we will:

  • take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient does not breach the APPs; or
  • seek to establish a reasonable belief that the overseas recipient is subject to protections which, overall, are at least substantially similar to those in the APPs (and which can be enforced).

We will, where practicable, update this policy from time to time to list the countries in which any overseas recipients are likely to be located.

Please contact us if you do not want us to disclose your information to overseas recipients.

If in the future our cross-border disclosure practices change, this will occur only in accordance with the requirements of the Act and the APPs.

 

Your agreement and consent

By providing personal information to us, you agree to the collection, use and disclosure of personal information in accordance with this policy.

However, this does not limit the ways in which an individual may agree to this Privacy Policy, or otherwise consent to our management of their personal information.

 

Complaints and further information

If you have any queries about our privacy statement or complaints regarding how your personal information is being managed, please contact Rural Health West.

Any complaint about our management of personal information should be in writing. If we are unable to resolve a complaint with you directly, you may consider making an external complaint.

This policy is available on our website. You can also contact us and request that we send you a copy by mail or email.

 

Direct marketing

Like many businesses, marketing to people in our databases is important to our ongoing success. We may send you information about new programs and opportunities which may be of interest to you, unless you opt out from receiving marketing messages from us – which you can do at any time by following the unsubscribe link included in our marketing material, or by contacting us.

We will not disclose your personal information to third parties for direct marketing purposes.

 

Contact information

All correspondence in relation to your personal information should be directed to:

Rural Health West
PO Box 433
Nedlands WA 6909
Attn: General Manager Communications and Business Analytics

Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 08 6389 4500
Facsimile: 08 6389 4501