Privacy Policy (POPIA)
1. Our commitment
M-Care Optima respects your privacy. Mental health information is among the most personal information there is, and we treat it with the highest level of confidentiality. This policy explains how we collect, use, share and protect personal information, in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).
2. Who is responsible for your information
The responsible party is Bloempsych (Pty) Ltd, trading as M-Care Optima (Reg. No. 2009/009300/07), 17 Addison Street, Hospital Park, Bloemfontein, 9317.
Information Officer: Dr C.F Du Plessis, Managing Director, docdup@psychdup.co.za, 051 502 1835
- Visitors to our website
- People who contact us or make enquiries
- Referring doctors, psychologists and their practices
- Patients, including adolescents in our Teenage Unit
- Parents, legal guardians, medical aid main members and next of kin
- Contact form: first name, last name, email address, phone number, type of enquiry and your message
- Technical information: IP address, browser type, device type and pages visited (see Cookies below)
- Identity details of the patient and the medical aid main member (ID numbers and copies of ID documents)
- Contact details and next-of-kin details
- Medical aid details, including plan, membership number and authorisation numbers
- Health information, including diagnosis, treatment, medication and clinical notes
- For teenage patients: details, IDs and consent of parents or legal guardians
- Dietary requirements and other information needed for your care
- We process health information as a healthcare institution, where this is needed for your proper treatment and care, or for the administration of the hospital (POPIA section 32), or with your consent.
- Everyone who has access to health information is bound by a duty of confidentiality through law, their profession or their employment contract.
- We process information about patients under 18 with the consent of a parent or legal guardian, or where the law otherwise allows it.
- To respond to your enquiries
- To assess, admit, treat and care for patients
- To obtain authorisation and payment from medical aids
- To communicate with referring and treating practitioners
- To keep patients, staff and visitors safe
- To manage accounts and hospital administration
- To meet our legal and regulatory obligations, including under the Mental Health Care Act, 2002 and the National Health Act, 2003
- To improve our website and services, using anonymised or aggregated information where possible
- your treating psychiatrist and members of the multidisciplinary team, some of whom bill separately (for example psychologists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dietitians and biokineticists);
- your medical aid scheme or its administrator, for authorisation and claims;
- pathology laboratories, pharmacies and other healthcare providers involved in your care;
- service providers who support our operations (for example IT, hosting and document storage), under written agreements that require them to keep information secure and confidential; and
- authorities, courts or other parties where the law requires it.
8. Information sent outside South Africa
We store personal information in South Africa.
9. How we protect your information
We use appropriate physical, technical and organisational measures to protect personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure. These include access controls, secure storage of paper and electronic records, confidentiality agreements and staff training. If we believe your personal information has been accessed without authorisation, we will notify you and the Information Regulator as POPIA requires.
10. How long we keep information
- Patient records: for the periods required by law and by the Health Professions Council of South Africa’s guidelines on keeping patient records (longer periods apply to records of minors).
- Website enquiries: for 12 months, unless they become part of a patient record.
- Accounts and financial records: for the periods required by tax and company law.
Records are then securely destroyed or anonymised.
11. Your rights
Under POPIA you have the right to:
- ask whether we hold your personal information and request access to it (see our PAIA Manual);
- ask us to correct or delete information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or unlawfully obtained;
- object to processing on reasonable grounds, where the law allows it;
- withdraw consent where processing is based on consent (this does not affect processing already done, or processing we are required to do by law); and
- lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator.
Contact our Information Officer to use any of these rights. We may need to confirm your identity first. Some health records may be withheld where the law allows it, for example where access could cause serious harm to the patient’s physical or mental health.
- Essential cookies make the website work and cannot be switched off.
- Analytics cookies Google Analytics help us understand how visitors use the website. We only use these with your consent, which you can give or withdraw through the cookie banner.
- Website: www.inforegulator.org.za
- Email: enquiries@inforegulator.org.za
- Toll-free: 0800 017 160
- Telephone: 010 023 5200
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page.