The default position is that telehealth consultations are not recorded (in the same way that face-to-face GP consultations are not recorded). However, instances may arise where it is clinically appropriate to record all or some of a telehealth video consultation, or take and record still images from a consultation in order to properly manage a patient’s health needs.
If the recording of a video consultation is proposed for clinical purposes:
- provide the patient with information about how the recordings (including discrete still images) would be managed, stored and accessed
- gain prior written consent from the patient and document this consent in the patient’s health record
- confirm a patient’s consent for recording verbally on camera at the commencement of the consultation
- send a copy of the written consent to the distant specialist prior to the consultation
- store recordings securely in the patient’s health record in accordance with usual requirements for retaining health records.
Advise patients that they are not authorised to make their own recordings of a video consultation.
Clinicians should be mindful of their own privacy in relation to the risk of video recordings being redistributed in the public domain without their consent.