The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (Commission) has collected your personal information as part of dealing with a complaint about an aged care provider. We may have collected this information directly from you, or from another person or organisation.
Why have we collected your personal information?
Our main purpose in collecting personal information as part of a complaint process is to resolve concerns about the care and services being provided to people in aged care. It helps us determine whether a person is receiving safe, quality care that meets aged care providers’ responsibilities. It means we can keep in touch with complainants, aged care consumers and their representatives, and give them information about the outcome of their complaint.
The Commission is authorised by law to collect personal information as part of dealing with complaints, under the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Act 2018 (Commission Act) and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission Rules 2018 (Commission Rules).
What happens if your personal information is not collected?
If we do not collect personal information, it can reduce our ability to successfully resolve a complaint. We encourage people to complain to us even if they don’t want to tell us their names. We will ensure that any concerns raised anonymously are appropriately addressed but we won’t be able to involve the complainant in the process or give them feedback on the outcome.
How will your personal information be used?
We use personal information collected in a complaint process for the purpose of handling, resolving and providing feedback on the complaint. Sometimes we use personal information collected during a complaint for our other functions, for example to:
- Inform our decisions on monitoring and investigating providers that may not be meeting their responsibilities, to identify risks and take action to address them.
- Investigate potential non-compliance by an approved provider, their aged care worker or governing person, with the Code of Conduct for Aged Care.
- Survey complainants about how we can improve our services. We use Orima Research Pty Ltd (and its subcontractors) to gather this information. We, Orima Research Pty Ltd and its subcontractors must meet privacy laws which restrict how we collect, store and use the information you give us.
When will your personal information be disclosed?
Your personal information won't be disclosed to any other person or organisation unless:
- you give us permission; or
- it's authorised or required by law; or
- it meets one of the other exceptions in the Australian Privacy Principles.
Unless you have asked to remain anonymous or have your identity kept confidential, your personal information may be disclosed to another party to the complaint if necessary for the handling and resolution of the issues raised in it, or to provide an explanation of a decision to finalise a complaint. This disclosure is authorised by the Commission Act.
If you ask us to keep your personal information confidential we will do so, unless that will, or is likely to, place the safety, health or well-being of any person at risk. We will take all reasonable steps to notify you before deciding to not to keep your personal information confidential.
Sometimes we disclose personal information to external organisations include the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, State Coroners’ offices and the police. This is authorised by the Commission Act in certain circumstances.
We do not usually use or disclose personal information overseas, except in limited circumstances:
- Email traffic may be assessed by overseas service providers for malicious and harmful content, to mitigate security risks.
- We may send personal information offshore to the person the information is about or with the consent of the individual concerned.
If we intend to disclose personal information to an offshore recipient in other circumstances, we will take reasonable steps to notify you.
More information
We comply with the Privacy Act 1998 and Australian Privacy Principles in handling personal information. Our privacy policy contains detailed information about the types of personal information we collect and when we collect it, how we use and disclose personal information, and the steps we take to keep it safe.
If you have questions or concerns about how we handle personal information, you can read our privacy policy, call us on 1800 951 822 or email us.
