Accessing your medical records

In most circumstances, your GP, specialist or health care practitioner will contact us for the information they require. Information is only sent to them for your continuum of care.

• Hospital (inpatient episodes of care), please phone Health Information Services on +61 (2) 9812 3008.
  • This release of information is limited to discharge summaries, operation/angiography/endoscopy reports, prosthetics/implants, pathology, imaging reports.
• Clinic (outpatient care), please contact the clinic you have attended. MQ Health Clinic details can be searched and found here.

There are two types of clinical notes you can apply for from MQ Health.

Inpatient hospital records

If you would like a copy of the clinical notes related to your treatment at Macquarie University Hospital, please complete the hospital application form.

Outpatient records

If you require outpatient information, you will need to contact the individual clinic(s) and complete the clinic application form. If you have attended multiple clinics, you will need to be specific in naming the clinic and the information you are requesting. Please note that not all clinics at 2 Technology Place are MQ Health clinics.

Both application forms outline the current fees and types of identification required in order to process your request. Note that all copies of identification must be certified prior to your application being accepted.

Under the legislation, in special circumstances, access to your health information may be declined (for example, when giving access would put you or another person at risk of harm).

Original application forms with authority and fee can be sent to:

Health Information Services
Macquarie University Hospital
Locked Bag 2231
North Ryde BC NSW 1670 Australia

If there is information in your record that you believe is incorrect, or which you do not agree with, you can apply for it to be amended. You will need to provide details of why the information may be inaccurate, incomplete, out of date or misleading.

It is generally not possible to make changes to clinical information recorded in your medical record. You may instead ask us to keep a statement with your records noting the required change.

If a third party (eg a solicitor acting on your behalf) requires information from your clinical notes, they must provide a letter outlining their request accompanied by an original consent document from you. This is usually called a Medical Authority.

It must contain the following (or similar) sentence in order for us to accept it via email.

“I authorise that a photocopy or scan of this authority/consent document is to be treated as if it were the original”.

The authority document must also have:

• your name (including any aliases and maiden names)
• your address
• your date of birth
• your signature.

It must also be correctly addressed to Macquarie University Hospital for Hospital related records, or to MQ Health for Outpatient records.  Documents addressed to Macquarie University, Macquarie Hospital or MUH will not be accepted.

It must also be dated within three months of us receiving it.

Failure to meet any of these conditions will result in rejection of the authority, which in turn will cause unnecessary delays.

For any issues relating to your medical record and its content, please contact the Health Information Services Department on +61 (2) 9812 3087 or the individual MQ Health Clinic you attended