Collection Notice

St John Ambulance Western Australia Ltd (ACN 165 969 406) has legal obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles to protect your personal information. These are outlined in our Privacy Policy which is available on our website.

This Collection Notice explains how St John WA collects, holds, uses, and discloses your personal or health information (as defined in the Privacy Act). We may update and amend this Collection Notice to reflect changes in legislation, industry codes or in our operations.

This Collection Notice does not change any rights and obligations you or St John WA have regarding collecting your personal/health information and privacy when you call triple zero (000) and when we provide ambulance services to you.

St John WA may collect, hold, use, and disclose your personal information:

• to provide 000 emergency call services;
• to provide ambulance and/or health services to you or to someone you called 000 for emergency medical assistance;
• when you use our First Responder App to request emergency medical assistance;
• by sharing with hospitals, WA Department of Health care pathways, medical facilities, or third-party health service providers (such as your GP or specialists) as part of your clinical handover or continued clinical care.
• when we transport you to a hospital or connect you with a WA Department of Health care pathway (such as WAVED (Western Australia Virtual Emergency Department)), we provide a copy of your patient record (in paper or electronic format) as part of clinical care handover;
• in keeping records for billing and administration purposes, including when claiming on your health insurance, or where your invoice is paid by a third party (such as ICWA, DVA, etc.);
• to report to our funding bodies, including the WA Department of Health;
• to comply with requests from the coroner, law enforcement and statutory agencies, courts, and tribunals and as otherwise required by law;
• for the secondary purposes of research or statistical activities relevant to public health or to improve health care outcomes;
• for service quality improvement or audit, including via surveys and feedback on service delivery;
• for our marketing purposes, with your consent; and
• for any other purposes to which you consent.

We generally try to collect personal information from you directly, but as we are providing emergency services, this is not always practicable, reasonable, or appropriate. We do collect personal information about you from the person calling 000, persons on the scene of the incident and when someone gives us information on your behalf (such as a carer/guardian).

Where there is a serious threat to your life, health, or safety, we may collect, use, and disclose personal and health information without your consent in order to provide emergency health services to you.

Also, when you call 000 requesting emergency assistance or when providing emergency ambulance services, it is not practical or appropriate for us to explain our privacy policy to you and request your consent as this will delay our emergency response.
If you choose not to provide your personal or health information, we will be limited in the clinical care and emergency response we can provide.

Through the Clinical Hub, with your consent, we will exchange your personal and health information with third party health providers to whom you are referred. When we refer you to another service provider, we provide personal information as part of clinical referral and receive back personal and health information on services provided to you.

Location and recording data

We monitor and record calls we receive through the triple zero emergency call centre. As an emergency service provider, we are exempt from the requirement to advise callers that the emergency call is being recorded, pursuant to the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) (Emergency Service Facilities – Western Australia) Instrument 2022 (Cth).

If you or somebody else on your behalf makes 000 call from a mobile device, we collect, use, and disclose information on the probable location of the caller to help us respond to the emergency, pursuant to Part 13 Divisions 1 and 3 of the Telecommunications Act 1997 (Cth).

Due to an increase in violence and aggression towards our team members and for their safety, body worn cameras may be used to record audio and video when providing ambulance services. You will be advised when any recording is undertaken. Footage from these cameras may be used as evidence in court, reported to law enforcement agencies and used for investigative purposes. There are legal and privacy obligations associated with the use of body worn cameras by paramedics and footage is considered confidential in nature.

Data Security

We protect your personal information as far as practicable from misuse, interference, loss, and from unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure, as further outlined in our Privacy Policy. Contact us should you have any concerns about the security of your personal information, for example where you may have an enforceable domestic violence restraining order against another individual.

Whilst we try to keep patient data within Australia, the nature of cloud computing means that some of our systems or third-party provider systems may process and store information overseas. We ensure any third-party providers have security measures in place to protect your personal information from being misused or interfered with. We also disclose your personal information overseas with your consent, for example if you usually live outside of Australia and require your ambulance patient record to claim on your health insurance.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about how your personal information has been handled or would like to access or correct your personal information, you can contact our Privacy Officer on (08) 9334 1222 or email: feedback@stjohnwa.com.au. Alternatively, you may write to us at PO Box 183, Belmont, WA 6984.