A Newcastle dental practice has 45 days to answer a written request for your records

Why a NSW Act, and why it reaches a private practice

Newcastle is in NSW, so a private practice here holds your health information under the NSW Act. The Act's definition of a health service names dental services, whether they are provided publicly or privately.

Smaller businesses are not left out. The Act points to the Commonwealth rule that an organisation providing a health service and holding health information is not a small business operator, so the access rules apply to a small practice in the same way as a large one.

What the request has to say

Section 26 sets out what a request needs. It must be in writing, state your name and address, identify the information you want, and say what form you want it in. The practice may ask for evidence of identity before it hands anything over.

You can also authorise someone else to receive the records in your place, such as another practice you want to look at them. That authority has to be in writing and has to name the person, and the practice is to provide access in line with it.

The 45 days, and what counts as an answer

Section 27 gives the practice 45 days from receiving the request to respond. Responding means providing access or refusing it. A refusal must come with a written reason that the Act allows, part of a file can be refused while the rest is released, and a practice that does not respond is taken to have refused.

The Act allows a fee for giving a copy or for a chance to inspect the records, but it must not exceed any fee the regulations prescribe, and the general rule is access without excessive delay or expense. If the practice charges, it has to tell you in writing within the same 45 days, and it then need not give access until 7 days after you pay.

A copy, or a chance to read them

Access is either a copy or a reasonable opportunity to inspect the records and take notes. If you ask for a particular form, the practice is to provide it that way, unless doing so would place unreasonable demands on its resources or fall within the Act's other exceptions, in which case it provides the information in another form.

How long records are kept, and where a refusal can go

For information collected while you were an adult, section 25 requires a private practice to keep it for 7 years from the last time it provided you with a health service. The Act sets a different period for information collected while someone was a minor, which this article does not cover.

If you think a practice has not followed these rules, section 42 allows a written complaint to the Privacy Commissioner, made within 6 months of when you first became aware of the conduct, or later if the Commissioner allows it. This site is not a dental practice and gives no clinical advice; what your records mean is a question for the practice.