Privacy Policy

This policy explains how Dr Rhys Clark Orthopaedics handles personal information collected through this website, rhysclark.com.au. We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and — as a health service provider — by the health records legislation applying in Western Australia.

Health information is treated as sensitive information under the Privacy Act and is afforded a higher level of protection.

If you are an existing or prospective patient, this website policy sits alongside the more detailed Patient Consent to Collect & Disclose Information, which covers your clinical record, surgical audit participation, AI-assisted documentation and access to your medical records.

What we collect through this website

When you send an enquiry. The contact form asks for your name, email address, phone number, a subject and your message. Only your name, email and message are required. We collect this so we can respond to you.

When you simply browse. Our hosting provider records standard technical information — your IP address, browser and device type, the pages requested and the time of the request. This is ordinary server logging used for security and reliability. We do not use it to build a profile of you.

Cookies and analytics. This website does not set advertising cookies and does not track you across other websites.

We use Vercel Web Analytics to understand which pages are read and how people move through the site. It is cookieless: rather than storing an identifier on your device, it derives a temporary hash from the incoming request to distinguish one visit from another, and that hash is discarded within 24 hours. It does not collect your name, email address or any health information, and it is not used for advertising or profiling.

Please keep web enquiries general

Email and web forms are convenient but not fully secure, and we cannot guarantee that a message cannot be intercepted in transit.

For that reason, please do not send detailed medical history, scan results, Medicare or private health fund numbers through the enquiry form. If your question is clinical, phone the rooms on (08) 6332 6365 and we will take it from there.

How we use your information

Information submitted through this website is used to:

• Respond to your enquiry, and arrange or confirm an appointment
• Contact you about a booking, referral or account
• Meet our legal, insurance and professional obligations

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use website enquiries for marketing.

Who we disclose it to, and overseas handling

Enquiries submitted through this website are delivered to the practice inbox using SendGrid, a service of Twilio Inc. (United States). The website itself is hosted by Vercel Inc. (United States) and served from their Sydney region.

Because both providers are based overseas, information you submit may be stored or processed outside Australia. Under APP 8 we take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle your information in a way consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.

Beyond this, we disclose personal information only as described in the patient consent page — for example to other treating practitioners, pathology and radiology providers, your health fund, or where disclosure is required by law.

How long we keep it

Website enquiries are retained in the practice’s email records for as long as needed to deal with your enquiry and to meet our record-keeping obligations. Where an enquiry becomes part of your clinical record, it is retained under the same rules as the rest of that record — generally a minimum of seven years from your last attendance, or, for a patient who was a child, until they turn 25.

Keeping information secure

We take reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access or disclosure. This website is served over an encrypted connection (HTTPS), and access to the practice’s systems is restricted to authorised staff.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, which is why we ask you to keep clinical detail off the web form.

Accessing or correcting your information

You can ask for access to the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it if it is wrong.

• Email: info@rhysclark.com.au
• Phone: (08) 6332 6365

Requests for access to a medical record should be made in writing, and an administrative fee may apply. Access can be refused or limited in the circumstances set out in the Privacy Act — for instance where giving access would pose a serious threat to someone’s life, health or safety, or would unreasonably affect another person’s privacy. If we refuse, we will tell you why.

Where clinical information is corrected, the correction is recorded alongside the original entry rather than erasing it, so the record remains complete.

Complaints

If you have a concern about how we have handled your personal information, please raise it with the practice first at info@rhysclark.com.au. We will acknowledge your complaint and respond within a reasonable period.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can refer the matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

• Web: oaic.gov.au
• Phone: 1300 363 992

Changes to this policy

We review this policy from time to time. Any updated version will be published on this page.

Last reviewed: 13 August 2026.