As a consumer of healthcare services, it is important to understand your rights and responsibilities when receiving these services. The Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights sets out your rights and responsibilities as a consumer when receiving healthcare.
Australian Charter of Healthcare Rights
Your Rights
As a consumer, you have a right to:
Access
Access appropriate healthcare treatment and services that meet your needs.
Safety
- Receive safe and high-quality care that meets national healthcare standards.
- Be cared for in an environment that is safe and allows you to feel safe.
Respect and dignity
- Be treated with respect and dignity without discrimination.
- Have your culture, identity, beliefs and choices recognised and respected.
Partnership
- Ask questions and be involved in your care planning and decision-making processes.
- Request and choose the people you want involved in your care planning and decision-making.
Privacy and confidentiality
- Have your personal information kept secure and confidential.
- Have your privacy respected.
Read our Privacy Policy on our Publications and Policies page.
Clear communication
- Receive clear and comprehensive information in a way that enables you to give informed consent.
- Receive information about services and treatment relevant to you.
- Receive assistance when needed to understand and use your health information.
- Be informed if something has gone wrong during your healthcare, including being informed regarding how this happened, how it may affect you and what we will do to ensure your safe care.
Feedback
- Provide feedback or make a complaint without fear or your care being affected, and with confidence that your concerns will be dealt with professionally and promptly.
- Have your concerns addressed in a transparent and timely way; and share your experience and participate in improving the quality of care and health services.
Provide your feedback via our Contact Us page.
Your Responsibilities
To ensure we can work together to provide the best possible care, we ask that you:
Are respectful to the A&R team member
- SEMPHN staff have the right to work in a safe environment and be treated with dignity and respect. Being respectful to the A&R team member is an important way of ensuring that everyone feels safe
Understand that you may be refused a service
- If you act in an abusive, disrespectful or threatening manner, you may be refused service.
Share information
- To help the Access & Referral team member understand your needs, it is important to share relevant information about your current and historical mental health and AOD status.
- It is also important to share what you expect from your treatment and what matters to you.
Ask questions
- If you don’t understand any information, please ask questions.
Participate with the Access & Referral service
- This means asking questions, discussing options and making choices about your care.
