The Federal Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act 2000 legislates requirements for the personal and health information that anyone holds about you.
In essence, it makes into law the ethic of confidentiality that doctors have long held. We will not seek information from you or about you without your consent. In rare or emergency situations, it may be necessary to get information about a patient from an acquaintance or relative without consent, although no information about the patient would be given to that person unless the emergency dictated it.
We would expect to be able to give your information to other medical practitioners, hospitals or health service providers to assist in any current or future medical treatment that might relate to your condition. We would hope to be able to write letters back to your referring doctor.
If you are not willing for Dr Blenkin to communicate your health information in this way, you need to simply tell your psychiatrist, just as you simply need to ask if you would like them to run through your file notes with you.
It is important that you know your psychiatrist holds the confidentiality of your information to be of the greatest importance, whether or not a law is passed about it, and would only share it with others with your consent.
There are some legal circumstances where confidentiality is expected to be waived, but they are rare.
Further information on this law may be obtained from the website privacy.gov.au