General practioners are increasingly using electronic communication to correspond with patients and other health professionals.

 

Patients will be given the option of being contacted by electronic means such as via email and/or SMS.

​

All new and existing patients in the practice will be given an information sheet on our electronic communication policy, and are asked to provide signed consent to agree or disagree to be communicated within this manner.

​

It is acknowledged by the Dalkeith Medical Centre that consent is implied if the patient initiates electronic communication with the Dalkeith Medical Centre.

​

Reception staff will check if each patient has this information on their record on arrival to the practice, along with the verification of their name, date of birth and address.

​

The Dalkeith Medical Centre also confirms the following:

• cannot guarantee confidentiality of information transferred via email 

• will comply with the Australian Privacy Principles and the Privacy Act 1988.

• only private email accounts (not affiliated with a business server) will be used.

• communications will not contain sensitive information, due to the risk of confidential information being accessed inadvertently or intentionally by a third party.

• communications will not contain results that only the general practitioner should be divulging in a follow-up appointment, i.e. abnormal results, education concerning a new diagnosis, etc

• communication will not entail promotion of any product and/or preventative health care (as some patients can interpret this as an advertisement.

• patients should not use email to contact the Dalkeith Medical Centre in an emergency (also included in the automatic email response).

• communication conducted with a patient via electronic means will be added to the patient’s medical record by the team member resolving the enquiry.

​​

The email account for patients and stakeholders for non-urgent communication is:   admin@dalkeithmedical.com.au

This email account will the routinely checked throughout the business day by senior reception staff and practice manager;

• at the start of business

• midday

• one hour before end of business

​​

​