Newcastle appointments

When making your appointment you can request to see a particular doctor.

Appointments are necessary (except for emergencies) and are usually fifteen minutes. If you think you need more time, please tell the receptionist when making your appointment.

Please arrive 10 minutes early for your first appointment to complete the paperwork.

• Opening times
• Location
• After hours care
• Urgent appointments
• Communicating with Doctors
• Doctors and hours
• Privacy Policy

Opening times

Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm both during semester and recess.

Location

We are located on Level 1, Student Services Centre at the Newcastle campus at Callaghan.

Most consultations are done here, however home visits are available for patients who can't attend because of their medical condition and either live on-campus or within 15 minutes traveling time of campus.

After hours care

If you need urgent medical attention outside of our operating hours, please telephone 4921 6000 and a recorded message will give you our after hours arrangements. This practice provides 24 hour care for our patients through GP Access which operates after 6pm on weekdays, on weekends from 12pm Saturday, and all day on public holidays. On Saturday mornings you can contact Broadmeadow Medical Centre by phoning 40414400

Urgent Appointments

Every morning, there is one clinic for urgent problems. These appointments should be used for problems that are urgent or cannot wait for a routine appointment and are best booked by telephone between 8:30-9:00am as these clinics fill up very quickly. During these clinics, the doctor will deal with the urgent problem but may ask you to make another appointment for non-urgent, longstanding or on-going problems. If you feel you need to see a doctor urgently, please discuss it with the receptionist or nurse.

Communicating with Doctors

If you telephone to speak to a doctor and they are unavailable or with a patient, a nurse may be able to help you. You may, however, leave a message and the doctor will call you back as soon as possible. As most doctors work part time they do not regularly access their University email so patients are advised not to email doctors.

Doctors

Dr Michael Schien (MBBS, Dip RACOG, DA, FRACGP) has a special interest in skin disorders and performs minor procedures.

Dr Kumran Salam (MBBS, FRACGP) has an interest in Women's Health, Preventative Medicine and Paediatrics

Dr Lina Wee (B Med, FRACGP) speaks Malay, Hokkien and enjoys all aspects of general practice.

Dr Christina Connor (B Med, FRACGP)

Dr Anna Levinson (MBBS, FRACGP)

We also have registered nurses available who work closely with the doctors, attend most emergencies on campus and treat minor injuries when it may not be necessary to see a doctor.

Privacy Policy

Current as of: 17 September 2021

Introduction

This privacy policy is to provide information to you, our patient, on how your personal information (which includes your health information) is collected and used within our practice, and the circumstances in which we may share it with third parties.

Why and when your consent is necessary

When you register as a patient of our practice, you provide consent for our GPs and practice staff to access and use your personal information so they can provide you with the best possible healthcare. Only staff who need to see your personal information will have access to it. If we need to use your information for anything else, we will seek additional consent from you to do this.

Why do we collect, use, hold and share your personal information?

Our practice will need to collect your personal information to provide healthcare services to you. Our main purpose for collecting, using, holding and sharing your personal information is to manage your health. We also use it for directly related business activities, such as financial claims and payments, practice audits and accreditation, and business processes (eg staff training).

What personal information do we collect?

The information we will collect about you includes your:

• names, date of birth, addresses, contact details
• medical information including medical history, medications, allergies, adverse events, immunisations, social history, family history and risk factors
• Medicare number (where available) for identification and claiming purposes
• healthcare identifiers
• health fund details.

Dealing with us anonymously

You have the right to deal with us anonymously or under a pseudonym unless it is impracticable for us to do so or unless we are required or authorised by law to only deal with identified individuals.

How do we collect your personal information?

Our practice may collect your personal information in several different ways.

1. When you make your first appointment our practice staff will collect your personal and demographic information via your registration.
2. During the course of providing medical services, we may collect further personal information.

Information can also be collected through electronic transfer of prescriptions (eTP), My Health Record (eg via Shared Health Summary, Event Summary).

We may also collect your personal information when you visit our website, send us an email or SMS, telephone us, make an online appointment or have a Telehealth appointment.

In some circumstances personal information may also be collected from other sources. Often this is because it is not practical or reasonable to collect it from you directly. This may include information from:

• your guardian or responsible person
• other involved healthcare providers, such as specialists, allied health professionals, hospitals, community health services and pathology and diagnostic imaging services
• your health fund, Medicare, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (as necessary).

When, why and with whom do we share your personal information?

We sometimes share your personal information:

• with third parties who work with our practice for business purposes, such as accreditation agencies or information technology providers – these third parties are required to comply with APPs and this policy
• with other healthcare providers
• when it is required or authorised by law (eg court subpoenas)
• when it is necessary to lessen or prevent a serious threat to a patient’s life, health or safety or public health or safety, or it is impractical to obtain the patient’s consent
• to assist in locating a missing person
• to establish, exercise or defend an equitable claim
• for the purpose of confidential dispute resolution process
• when there is a statutory requirement to share certain personal information (eg some diseases require mandatory notification)
• during the course of providing medical services, through eTP, My Health Record (eg via Shared Health Summary, Event Summary), Australian Immunisation Register.

Only people who need to access your information will be able to do so. Other than in the course of providing medical services or as otherwise described in this policy, our practice will not share personal information with any third party without your consent.

We will not share your personal information with anyone outside Australia (unless under exceptional circumstances that are permitted by law) without your consent.

Our practice will not use your personal information for marketing any of our goods or services directly to you without your express consent. If you do consent, you may opt out of direct marketing at any time by notifying our practice in writing.

Our practice may use your personal information to improve the quality of the services we offer to our patients through research and analysis of our patient data.

We may provide de-identified data to other organisations to improve population health outcomes. The information is secure, patients cannot be identified and the information is stored within Australia. You can let our reception staff know if you do not want your information included.

How do we store and protect your personal information?

Your personal information is stored at our practice in electronic records.

Our practice stores all personal information securely. Electronic records are protected by use of passwords by authorised staff who have signed confidentiality agreements, and use of up to date antiviral software.

How can you access and correct your personal information at our practice?

You have the right to request access to, and correction of, your personal information.

Our practice acknowledges patients may request access to their medical records. We require you to put this request in writing to unihealth@newcastle.edu.au and our practice will respond within a reasonable time, usually 30 days. There may be a fee for providing copies of medical records.

Our practice will take reasonable steps to correct your personal information where the information is not accurate or up to date. From time to time, we will ask you to verify that your personal information held by our practice is correct and current. You may also request that we correct or update your information, and you should make such requests in writing to unihealth@newcastle.edu.au.

How can you lodge a privacy-related complaint, and how will the complaint be handled at our practice?

We take complaints and concerns regarding privacy seriously. You should express any privacy concerns you may have in writing to unihealth@newcastle.edu.au. We will then attempt to resolve it in accordance with our resolution procedure within 30 days. Complaints may also be made to the University’s Privacy Office at privacy@newcastle.edu.au.

You may also contact the OAIC. Generally, the OAIC will require you to give them time to respond before they will investigate. For further information visit www.oaic.gov.au or call the OAIC on 1300 363 992.

Privacy and our website

Any data collected through the practice website or via digital interactions with patients (eg email) will be treated in accordance with this policy.

Please refer to the University’s Website Privacy Statement and the University’s Privacy Management Plan for more information on how the University respectfully manages your information.

Policy review statement

This privacy policy will be reviewed annually to ensure it is in accordance with any changes that may occur. Changes to the policy will be notified on the Health Service website.