Your privacy is very important to us

Privacy Policy of Dr. Sofia Smirnova (Private Consulting Rooms & Visiting Medical Officer, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Private Specialist at St Luke’s Private Hospital, Mater Hospital, and Prince of Wales Private Hospital)

Current as of: 24 July 2026

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Why this policy exists

Your privacy is very important to us. This policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect your personal and health information when you visit Dr Sofia Smirnova in her private consulting rooms, through telehealth, or when you are treated by her as a Visiting Medical Officer (VMO) at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPAH) and as a Private Specialist at St Luke’s Private Hospital, Mater Hospital, and Prince of Wales Private Hospital.

We handle your information in accordance with applicable Australian privacy laws, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles and, where applicable, the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW).

We are committed to protecting your personal and health information and only collecting information that is reasonably necessary to provide and manage your healthcare.

Who to contact

If you have any questions or concerns about your privacy, please contact our Reception Team:

reception@drsofiasmirnova.com.au
02 9557 2450
Suite 404, RPAH Medical Centre,
100 Carillon Avenue, Newtown NSW 2042

When do we need your consent?

When you become a patient, we collect and use your personal and health information as reasonably necessary to provide safe and appropriate healthcare.
We may need to share relevant information with Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, St Luke’s Private Hospital, Mater Hospital, Prince of Wales Private Hospital, other specialists, or healthcare providers involved in your care.
Where consent is required for a particular use or disclosure, we will seek your consent. Information may also be used or disclosed without consent where permitted or required by law, including in certain emergencies or circumstances involving a serious threat to life, health or safety.

Why do we collect and use your information?

We collect and use your information so we can:

Provide you with safe and appropriate medical care
Maintain accurate clinical and administrative records
Manage appointments, referrals and communication with you
Process Medicare, private health insurance and other relevant claims or payments
Coordinate your care with Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, St Luke’s Private Hospital, Mater Hospital, Prince of Wales Private Hospital and other healthcare providers involved in your treatment
Manage clinical risk, emergencies, referrals and continuity of care
Support quality improvement, clinical governance, education, training and service improvement using appropriate information, including de-identified information where applicable
Meet our legal, professional and regulatory obligations

What information do we collect?

Depending on your relationship with our practice, we may collect:

Your name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address
Medicare, private health insurance, healthcare identifier and relevant entitlement details
Your medical history, symptoms, diagnoses, medications, allergies, reproductive and sexual health information, menstrual, fertility, pregnancy and obstetric history
Information about previous treatments, procedures, pathology, imaging, referrals and other clinical records
Information about your personal, family, lifestyle or support circumstances where relevant to your healthcare
Images, photographs, scans or other clinical images where applicable and with appropriate consent
Payment and billing information
Information provided through forms, questionnaires, consultations and communications with our practice
Security-related information, such as CCTV where applicable for the safety and security of our consulting rooms
Website and online information such as IP address, device information, website usage, analytics and advertising data

How is your information collected?

We may collect your personal information directly from you or, where necessary and appropriate, from other people or organisations involved in your care.

This may occur:

When you register as a patient or complete forms at our consulting rooms
During appointments, telephone calls, emails or telehealth consultations
When you contact us or make an enquiry
From other healthcare providers, including Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, St Luke’s Private Hospital, Mater Hospital, Prince of Wales Private Hospital, GPs, specialists, pathology, imaging and allied health providers
From Medicare, private health insurers or other relevant government or funding bodies
Through third-party platforms and service providers used to provide or support our services
Through our website, social media pages, cookies and analytics technologies

Who do we share your information with?

We respect your privacy and take reasonable steps to keep your personal and health information confidential.

We may share relevant information:

With healthcare professionals involved in your care, including your GP, referring practitioner, specialists and allied health providers
With staff of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, St Luke’s Private Hospital, Mater Hospital and Prince of Wales Private Hospital when you are admitted or treated as part of your hospital care
With pathology, imaging and other healthcare providers involved in your treatment
With Medicare or private health insurers where required to process claims or administer your care
With IT, cloud, administrative and other service providers who assist us to operate our practice
With professional advisers, contractors or consultants where reasonably necessary to provide our services or operate our practice
Where you have authorised us to disclose your information
Where disclosure is permitted or required by law

Information may also be disclosed where necessary in an emergency, to lessen or prevent a serious threat to life, health or safety, or where required for legal, professional or regulatory purposes.

Some cloud, IT, analytics or other service providers we use may operate or provide support from outside Australia. Where this occurs, we take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate privacy and security safeguards are in place.

Telehealth consultations

Telehealth consultations are provided using appropriate secure and password-protected platforms where available.
Telehealth consultations are not recorded unless you provide explicit consent or recording is otherwise permitted by law.
Information and clinical notes from telehealth consultations may be included in your medical record and, where relevant, hospital systems.

How is your information stored and protected?

Your information may be held in paper and/or electronic form.
We take reasonable steps to protect your information from misuse, loss, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
Electronic information is stored using appropriate security measures and, where applicable, Australian-based systems or servers.
Hospital records are maintained within the relevant hospital or NSW Health systems and are managed in accordance with the policies and procedures of those organisations.
Access to information held by our practice is restricted to authorised people who need the information for their role.
We retain personal and health information for the periods required under applicable law, professional obligations and regulatory requirements.
When information is no longer required to be retained, we take reasonable steps to securely destroy or de-identify it.

Website, cookies and social media privacy

Our website and online presence may use cookies, web analytics and similar technologies to understand how visitors use our website and improve our online services.

These technologies may collect information such as:

IP address
Device and browser information
Pages visited and website usage
Advertising and analytics information
Standard web log information

We may use services such as Google Analytics to understand website traffic and usage. These services may store or process information across multiple countries.

If you communicate with us through a social media platform, the platform provider may also collect and process your information in accordance with its own privacy policy.

Website analytics and advertising information is kept separate from your clinical medical record and is not used to access or manage your medical information.

You can generally disable cookies through your browser settings if you prefer.

Our website may also contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of external websites and recommend reviewing their privacy policies before providing them with personal information.

Marketing communications

From time to time, we may send communications about our practice, services, updates or other information that may be relevant to you.

Where required, we will obtain your consent before sending direct marketing communications and will comply with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth).

You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe option provided or by contacting our Reception Team.

Opting out of marketing communications will not affect necessary communications relating to your appointments, treatment or healthcare.

Research and quality improvement

We are committed to improving the quality and safety of healthcare.

We may use appropriately de-identified information for clinical governance, education, training, quality improvement, research, analytics and service improvement.
Where information is de-identified, we take reasonable steps to ensure that you cannot reasonably be identified from that information.
We will not publish or disclose information that identifies you for these purposes without your consent, unless otherwise permitted or required by law.
Where hospital-based research involves your health information, applicable research governance and ethics approval requirements will apply.

If you are invited to participate in a research study, you will receive appropriate information about the study before deciding whether you wish to participate. Participation in research is voluntary and will not affect your medical care.

Accessing or correcting your records

You have the right to request access to personal information we hold about you and to ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, incomplete or out of date.

You can request access to or correction of your records by contacting our Reception Team.
We may need to verify your identity before providing access to your information.
In some circumstances, we may be unable to provide access to certain information where permitted or required by law. If this occurs, we will explain why where appropriate.
Requests relating to records held by NSW public hospitals should be directed to NSW Health.

Withdrawing consent

If you wish to withdraw consent for the collection, use or disclosure of your sensitive information, please contact our Reception Team.

We will consider your request within a reasonable timeframe. Please be aware that withdrawing consent may affect our ability to provide some or all healthcare services to you.

Certain information may still need to be retained, used or disclosed where required or permitted by law, professional obligations, clinical safety requirements or record-keeping requirements.

Complaints

If you have a concern about how your personal or health information has been handled:

Please contact our Reception Team first. We take privacy concerns seriously and will investigate your complaint and respond within a reasonable timeframe.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) on 1300 363 992 or visit www.oaic.gov.au.
For privacy matters relating to records held by NSW public hospitals, you may also contact NSW Health.

Policy updates

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time to reflect changes to our privacy practices, services or applicable legal requirements.

The current version will be published on our website.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, how your information is handled, or wish to request access to or correction of your information, please contact our Reception Team:

Email: reception@drsofiasmirnova.com.au
Phone: 02 9557 2450
Address: Suite 404, RPAH Medical Centre, 100 Carillon Avenue, Newtown NSW 2042

Privacy Policy last updated: 24 July 2026