This Privacy Statement explains in general terms how MPS protects the privacy of your personal information under the National Privacy Principles. It will apply to any personal information provided to us on your behalf under agreements you or your carer have arranged with your residential care facility, doctor, pharmacy or other health care professionals or advisor:

• when having medication packaged by MPS as ordered by an MPS Certified Pharmacy;
• when having your health information entered, stored, accessed and changed by authorised Health Care Professionals;
• under any other agreement or arrangement.

This Privacy Statement does not apply to MPS' employee records, which are generally exempt from the legislation.

What information do we collect

The types of personal information that we collect from you will depend on the circumstances of collection and on the type of service requested from us. For example, MPS will record current and historic medical information, personal information, information on prescribed medicines. As we are required by law to obtain your consent to the collection of "sensitive information" we will assume that you have consented to the collection of all information which is provided to us for use in accordance with this Statement, unless you tell us otherwise.

How we collect information

We may collect personal information about you when you or your authorised Health Care Professional deal with us over the secure MPS Health Network known as MPS Healthstream or when you or your authorised Health Care Professional have contact with us in person.

How we use your personal information

We generally collect your personal information for the following purposes:

• to package your medication into the MPS Compliance Packettes to simplify administration of your medication by your nurse, carer or yourself;
• to facilitate accurate and timely communication of your health information between the Health Care Professionals duly authorised to do so;
• to provide you and your duly authorised Health Care Professionals access to your current and historic medical information.

Some of the personal information we collect is essential for us to be able to accurately identify who is using the service. Other types of personal information we collect help us to profile who is using our services and what their interests are.

Disclosure of personal information to third parties

We only disclose your personal information and health information to duly authorised Health Care Professionals assigned access to your information.

MPS provides access to your information only to the Health Care Professionals involved in your health care. These parties are responsible for the entry and alteration of information. MPS Healthstream maintains an audit trail of entered or changed this information and when. It is designed to notify other interested Health Care Professionals when a change occurs.

The duly authorised Health Care Professionals assigned access to your personal and health information are also bound by ethics committees and in turn by the National Privacy Principles.

Other than the above, we will not disclose your personal information without your consent unless disclosure is either necessary to prevent a threat to life or health, authorised or required by law, reasonably necessary to enforce the law or necessary to investigate a suspected unlawful activity

At all times it remains your decision to allow or deny access your personal information to each individual Health Care Professional.

Access to and correction of information we hold about you

We will, on request, provide you with access to the information we hold about you, unless there is an exception which applies under the National Privacy Principles, including for the purpose of correcting or updating that information.

We may recover from you our reasonable costs of supplying you with access to this information.

Your request to provide access to this information will be dealt with in a reasonable time.

If we refuse to provide you with access to the information, we will provide you with reasons for the refusal and inform you of any exceptions relied upon under the National Privacy Principles.

In light of the new legislation we are putting in place systems and procedures to facilitate access to all information we hold about you on request. For information which we collected prior to 21 December 2001, we may not be able to provide you with access to this information where to do so would place an unreasonable administrative burden on us or cause us unreasonable expense.

Keeping your personal information up-to-date

If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact us and we will take reasonable steps to either correct this information, or if necessary, discuss alternative action with you.

Resolving your concerns

If you wish to gain access to your personal information, have a complaint about a breach of your privacy or you have any query on how your personal information is collected or used please forward your request, complaint or query to the address below. We will respond to your query or complaint as soon as possible.

Changes to this Privacy Statement

We may amend this Privacy Statement as our business requirements or the law changes. Any changes to this Privacy Statement will be updated on our website (http://mps-aust.com.au), so please visit the site periodically to ensure that you have our most current privacy statement.

Our contact details

MPS Australia
6/783 Kingsford-Smith Dr
Eagle Farm
Brisbane
Queensland 4009