Discover a world of educational opportunities to support your lifelong learning
Practice Experience Program is a self-directed education program designed to support non vocationally registered doctors on their pathway to RACGP Fellowship
Become a student member today for free and be part of the RACGP community
RACGP offer courses and events to further develop the knowledge you need to develop your GP career
Become a provider with the CPD Program and be recognised for the quality education and training you offer GPs
The Abuse and violence: working with our patients in general practice provides the best-available current evidence for GPs
Stay up-to-date with the latest information and resources on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
Download the Standards for general practice (5th edition) - a benchmark for quality care and risk management in Australian general practices
Coronavirus (COVID-19) resources for general practitioners
Get Involved!
Advice and guidelines for GPs and practice teams to help protect general practice information systems
Video consultations can provide convenient and accessible healthcare delivery
Read all of the RACGP reports and submissions on various healthcare topics
Read all of the RACGP position statements on various healthcare topics
Join our RACGP Facebook groups
Privacy and managing health information in general practice
When dealing with health information, your practice must decide if the intended use or disclosure is for a primary purpose (for collection) or a secondary purpose (directly related).
Health information is usually collected for providing healthcare services (the primary purpose). Your practice can use or disclose health information for the primary purpose.
If the patient consents, or would reasonably expect the use or disclosure, your practice can choose to use health information for another ‘secondary’ purpose. If a patient’s health information is de-identified, you and your practice need to decide whether it is appropriate to release this data at the request of an external organisation. The Guiding principles for managing requests for the secondary use of de-identified general practice data provides decision-making support and a checklist.
If a patient’s understanding and expectations are not clear, express consent should be obtained.
A practice relying on ‘reasonable expectations’ must consider these from the perspective of a patient with no specific medical knowledge. The patient’s age, cultural background and medical history should also be considered. Whether the intended use or disclosure was notified to the patient is also important.
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