Privacy policy Privacy policy

This document sets out the policies undertaken by NPS in the collection, use and storage of personal information as part of our business to provide independent, evidence-based information and services to health professionals, the community and individuals on Quality Use of Medicines (QUM).

National Prescribing Service Ltd (NPS) (ACN 082 034 393) is bound by the National Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and relevant state and territory privacy legislation.

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information relating to an individual that is held by an organisation, such as your name and address. The personal information that NPS collects will vary depending on your relationship with us. More information on the types of personal information collected is set out in the How is it used section below.

How is it collected?

On provision of information to us

NPS primarily collects information about you when you use or request a product or service, complete a survey, questionnaire or enrolment form or when you communicate with NPS by email, telephone, in writing or in person. NPS also collects information about you if you are providing services to NPS or, if you are an NPS staff member, through the staff recruitment and selection process.

From publicly available sources

NPS also collects personal information from the public domain. This includes information from pharmacy registration boards.

Indirect collection

NPS tries to collect personal information about an individual only from that individual, but in some circumstances NPS may obtain personal information from a third party, such as an NPS Facilitator, general practice manager, your health professional, a member of your family, a friend or your carer. If you provide personal information about another person to NPS, we require that you inform that person you have done so.

From the website

When you visit the NPS website, our web server may download a cookie to your computer. A cookie is a small piece of information sent by our server to your browser.

To protect your privacy, your browser only permits a web site to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites. If you do not wish to receive any cookies, you may set your browser to refuse them; go to the browser’s help menu for instructions.

Cookies do not contain personal information about users. However, cookies can identify a user's browser. The cookies transferred by the NPS website are used for such things as capturing information about a user's web browser, controlling a pop-up window or enabling login access to password protected areas of the website.

This information is used for quality assurance and evaluation purposes.

How is it used?

The personal information gathered is necessary to assist NPS in its function of providing educational resources and medicines information services to customers and for evaluation purposes. It is used only for the intended purposes and will not be sold, re-used, rented or loaned for other purposes.

The personal information may be used by NPS for the distribution of its publications, provision of medicines information services, administering professional development programs at your request, promotion of educational activities including events and conferences and for communication with subscribers and activity participants.

NPS needs your consent to use your personal information, in accordance with the Privacy Act and the National Privacy Principles. In some instances, if you do not provide consent, we may be unable to assess or process your information to provide you with the programs or services you require.

In most cases, NPS implies your consent and permission to use the personal information you provide as part of the information services and educational activities to which you register, subscribe or contact directly.

At any time you can advise NPS of changes to your personal information or ask to be removed from our mailing lists by emailing info@nps.org.au, faxing 02 9211 7578 or posting to PO Box 1147 Strawberry Hills 2012.

What types of personal information do we hold?

The personal information that NPS collects could include your name, the organisation you work for, your postal address, telephone and fax numbers and your email address. 

Health professionals

If you are a health professional, we may also need to request your occupation and professional interests in order to provide the appropriate services to you. Where you are participating in our educational activities, we may need to collect additional information to enable us to report your participation to agencies managing the continuous professional development and quality improvement programs in which you participate.

Suppliers

If you are one of our suppliers or provide services to us, such as expert advice and review, we may collect other information about you that we feel is necessary, such as the nature of the products and services that you provide, quotes that you provide and your direct credit details.

Sensitive information

NPS only collects sensitive information–such as health information and information about personal attributes such as ethnic or racial origin–when it is necessary for the provision and evaluation of the service requested. NPS will only collect and use this information with consent.
 

Collection and use of health information

The only time that NPS collects identifiable health information specific to a person is to provide medicines information services to customers of its phone line services. More information on the handling of personal, sensitive and health information by our phone line services is set out below.

For all other services and products, NPS does not collect identifiable health information specific to a person, nor does it provide personal medical advice.

Use of de-identified health information

As part of its services, NPS offers doctors and pharmacists the opportunity to undertake quality assurance activities that require them to collect de-identified health information and disclose it to NPS for quality assurance purposes.

Doctors or pharmacists providing this data are advised what it will be used for and give NPS written consent for the de-identified data to be aggregated in feedback to other doctors or pharmacists. Doctors and pharmacists are given patient information materials for their waiting areas that describe the activity and use of health information.

De-identified data means that the health information about an individual patient is not linked to a name, address, date of birth or specific age. Instead the information is linked to an identification code (for example, sequential number and patient initials). This code is created and kept by the doctor, who is thus able to identify each patient. The original collection forms are returned to the doctor (or other health professional) by mail.

One potential identifier is the name and practice address of the doctor or pharmacist who is participating in the quality activity. In this case, another unique identifier is assigned to ensure all sensitive information is de-identified. This link between patient health data and the doctor’s identification is permanently destroyed at the end of each triennium of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ QA&CPD program.

When GPs send this type of information electronically, it is de-identified and encrypted before it is sent to NPS. It is highly secure. The health information held by NPS does not include any information which actually or potentially allows identification of an individual patient or health professional.
 

Customers of our phone line services

NPS operates three phone line services:

• Medicines Line for consumers
• Therapeutic Advice and Information Service (TAIS) for health professionals
• Adverse Medicine Events Line (AME) for consumers wishing to report adverse experiences with their medicines.

Additional information that may be collected

The service providers NPS contracts to deliver its phone line information services may need to collect health information specific to a person in order to deliver the medicines information service requested.
This information may include:

• The relationship the caller has to the patient or person they are calling on behalf of. NPS also requires those calling on behalf of someone else and providing personal information about them to inform the patient or person that they have done so
• Age, date of birth and gender
• Address, postcode, telephone and fax numbers and email addresses.
• The caller’s profession (for TAIS customers only)
• Medicines used or planned to be used
• Medical history
• Health professional’s contact details.

Protection and security

These service providers are bound by the National Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), relevant state and territory legislation and the NPS Privacy Policy.

The information collected by the phone line services is de-identified prior to its use for any additional purposes such as evaluation. 

Disclosure of phone line services information

For consumers wishing to report an adverse drug reaction to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) via the Adverse Medicine Events Line, identifiable information will only be provided to the TGA with the consumer’s consent. De-identified information may be forwarded to the TGA for assessment and contribution to national medicine safety efforts.

Protection and security

NPS has a Privacy Officer and a Privacy Committee to oversee the management of personal information in accordance with this policy and privacy legislation.

NPS maintains the confidentiality and security of personal information by restricting access to only those staff and service providers required to provide management and administration services. Security measures are in place to prevent the misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure of personal information.

NPS has archiving policies and procedures, which provide for the secure, permanent destruction of records of personal information when no longer required, in accordance with National Privacy Principle 4.2.

Disclosure

It may be necessary for NPS to disclose personal information to third parties in the provision and administration of educational activities. Examples of the types of organisations to which NPS may disclose your information are:

• For general practitioners, NPS may provide Medicare Australia with your participation information to qualify you for Quality Prescribing Initiatives in the Practice Incentives Program
• For health professionals, NPS may provide your professional association with the participation information that qualifies you for professional development points.

In some cases, where verification can be provided, information on the activity status of the practice and/or general practitioners within that practice is provided to a practice manager.

If you subscribe to an NPS publication, NPS may need to disclose your information to contractors to whom NPS out-sources certain functions, such as mailing houses. NPS takes all reasonable measures with its contractors to ensure they comply with the privacy standards set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and any relevant state and territory legislation. NPS may also disclose personal information in circumstances where it has statutory obligations or is otherwise required to do so by law.

NPS does not supply, sell or rent its clients’ information to unrelated third parties for the purpose of marketing those third parties’ products or services.

Access and correction

You have the right to ask for the personal information held about you and to advise of any inaccuracy. There are some exceptions to this set out in the Privacy Act.

If you make an access request, NPS will ask you to verify your identity and specify what information you require. NPS may ask the reason for your request so we can assist you most effectively. However, you are under no obligation to provide a reason if you do not wish to.

Complaints

If you believe your personal information is not properly protected, or that there has been a breach or potential breach of this Privacy Policy or the privacy legislation, please contact NPS immediately and ask for your complaint or concern to be directed to the Privacy Officer.

NPS takes breaches seriously and has procedures to help identify and resolve a breach, potential breach or complaint as quickly as possible. This includes appropriate escalation processes to the Privacy Committee and CEO and notification processes in the event of a breach.

Every complaint is forwarded by the staff member who receives it to the Privacy Officer. You will be notified of the process for dealing with the breach or potential breach. Your complaint will be thoroughly investigated and a suitable resolution negotiated with you.

If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your complaint by NPS you may contact the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner (www.privacy.gov.au/contact).

Further information

For enquiries or feedback about this policy, or for complaints about NPS’s handling of personal information, please contact the Privacy Officer:

Email: please use our online form
Telephone: 02 8217 8700
Facsimile: 02 9211 7578
Mail: The Privacy Officer
National Prescribing Service Ltd
PO Box 1147
Strawberry Hills
NSW 2012

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