The recent changes to the Privacy Act have given you more control over your personal health information and how it is used.

Your doctor needs to collect health information from you to diagnose and treat your illness properly. You can choose not to provide certain details, however, this may affect your medical care. All health information is highly confidential and is stored securely to protect your privacy.

Usually, your doctor needs your consent to collect this information or to reveal it to anyone else. You can ask for certain sensitive details not to be passed on to other health care providers, eg in referral letters.

In general, your information is not used for any other purpose without your consent, except in special situations, such as compulsory reporting of certain diseases.

Your doctor tries to keep your medical record accurate, complete and up-to-date. In most cases, you can ask to see what is in your medical file and, if you think it is wrong, you can ask for it to be corrected.

If you have any questions about the privacy of your health information, ask your doctor. For further information, visit http://www.privacy.gov.au/.