Robynne Aimee Klyne t/as Newbies & Bewbies ABN 15 707 199 725 (Newbies & Bewbies, we, us, our), is committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information.  We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) and, in particular, by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), which set out the standards of collecting, holding, using and disclosing your personal information. We are also bound by the Health Records Act 2001 (VIC) (Health Records Act) and the Health Privacy Principles (HPPs) in the Health Records Act.  This Privacy Policy explains the way in which we handle your personal information, and the ways in which you can contact us about the personal information that we hold about you. 

What is personal information? 

“Personal information” is information about an identified, or reasonably identifiable, individual.  This includes your name, your date of birth, your contact details and payment data, and may also include sensitive details about your health. This may also include the same sorts of information about third parties, for example your family members where relevant to the services we provide. 

Collecting personal information 

We provide a lactation and postnatal support services in a supportive and caring environment, aimed to guide and nurture women and their families to feel confident as they adjust to their new roles.  Naturally, we handle personal information in the course of providing these services, including name, date of birth, contact details (including home, business and email address, as well as telephone numbers), payment details, and those of your family including your baby, other children, and your baby’s other parent.  

Among the personal information we collect is sensitive information such your and your family’s medical information, including medical, surgical, breastfeeding and sexual history; weight tracking; medications; allergies; adverse events; immunisations; family history and risk factors; Medicare number; healthcare identifiers; and health fund details. We will often collect this information from a patient by way of a form that she will fill out on her first consultation, or verbally in our consultations. We may also collect your personal information from third parties, such as family members, our patients, other treating healthcare providers, or other people you have authorised to provide your personal information to us.  

 Other than the above information about patients, we also collect the following personal information: 

• if you apply for employment with us, information relating to your application including your visa status and eligibility to work in Australia; and 

• any other personal information that is reasonably necessary for the purpose of running our business. 

 You are not required to disclose your personal information to us, and you may be able to deal with us anonymously or pseudonymously in certain circumstances. However, in some circumstances, if you do not provide the information requested, we may not be able to provide you with appropriate services or treatment or provide you with relevant information regarding our services. 

Our purposes for handling personal information 

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information, for the following purposes: 

• to provide you with the services you have engaged us to provide, including lactation and postnatal support; 

• to provide you with information regarding our services; 

• to maintain our business records, including in the event of an audit by private health insurance providers; 

• to stay in touch with you; 

• to process payments for our services; 

• to assess any applications you make to us as a prospective employee, including personal information about your current or previous employer; 

• for any purpose required or permitted by law; 

• for any purpose you would otherwise reasonably expect; 

• for any purpose disclosed to you and to which you have consented; and 

• to otherwise run our business. 

Disclosing your personal information

We treat your health records as sensitive, and in accordance with our obligations at law. We will take reasonable and appropriate measures to keep your personal information confidential and secure. 

 From time to time, we disclose your personal information to others involved in your health care, including doctors and specialists outside of Newbies & Bewbies, who may be involved in treating you, for example your GP, maternal child health nurse or paediatrician. This may occur through referral to doctors or specialists, or for medical tests, and we may collect further information about you in the reports or results returned to us following the referrals. These disclosures and collections will typically be with your consent. We will only disclose your personal information without your consent where we are authorised or required to do so under law, such as where we reasonably believe this is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to the life, health or safety of any individual, or to public health or safety. 

Typically, we only transfer your personal information overseas at your direction and with your consent, and always in accordance with the relevant laws. The country in which the recipient is located is therefore determined by your consent. Otherwise we store your personal information locally in Australia. 

Security of your personal information 

We hold your personal information in both paper-based and electronic files, in both cases stored securely.  We take appropriate measures to ensure that your personal information is protected from: 

• misuse, interference and loss; and 

• unauthorised access, modification and disclosure. 

The personal information that we hold is treated as confidential and only accessed when necessary. 

When your personal information is no longer required (and in the case of your health information, the information has been retained for the required periods under the HPPs or otherwise under law) we will take steps to securely destroy the information or to ensure that the information is permanently de-identified. 

Accessing your personal information 

You may request access to the personal information that we hold about you by contacting us at newbiesandbewbies@gmail.com.  If we refuse access to your personal information, we will provide you with a written notice which sets out the reasons for our refusal.  We may recover our reasonable costs (if any) in responding to a request for access to your personal information.

Correcting your personal information 

We seek to ensure that the personal information that we collect about you is accurate, up-to-date and complete and, in the case of our use of that information, relevant as well.  To assist us with this, we encourage you to contact us if you believe that any information that we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading, and make a request that we correct your personal information accordingly.  You may make such a request by contacting us on newbiesandbewbies@gmail.com. 

Marketing 

We may use your personal information to provide you with information about research, products and services which we think may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving marketing communications from us at any time if you no longer wish to receive this information.  In order to do so, simply contact us on newbiesandbewbies@gmail.com and request that we no longer send marketing communications to you or opt out in the way suggested in our communications, for example by clicking the Unsubscribe button.  

Questions and complaints 

If you have any questions, or if you believe that we have not complied with our obligations under the Privacy Act, or if you believe that the security of the personal information that we hold about you has been compromised in any way, please contact us at newbiesandbewbies@gmail.com.  We will respond as soon as possible.  If you are dissatisfied with our response, you may direct your complaint to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner by email at enquiries@oaic.gov.au or by telephone on 1300 363 992, or to the Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner at https://hcc.vic.gov.au/contact or by telephone on 1300 582 113.  

Changes to this Privacy Policy 

We may make change to this Privacy Policy from time to time without prior notice to you.  The current version of our Privacy Policy is available on our website. If you are not able to access the Privacy Policy online, please contact us if you would like us to send you a copy of the policy.  

Updated: August 2024.