Bringing Your Records When You Change Clinics

A new Clinician can assess you without your old file, but the first appointment goes better with it. The records tell them what has already been tried, what you are prescribed now, and whether an approval sits behind your current prescription. Most of that is in documents your previous clinic already holds, and Australian privacy law gives you the right to ask for them.

Key points:

• Ask for five things. A treatment summary, your current prescription details, any approval letter, recent letters and results, and your last few consultation notes.
• The right to ask is Commonwealth law. Australian Privacy Principle 12 gives you access to the health information a private provider holds about you, and the OAIC treats 30 days as a reasonable period to respond.
• A clinic cannot charge you for making the request. It can charge for giving access, but the charge cannot be excessive.
• Your old clinic may send the file straight to the new one. Either route works, and you can ask for a copy for yourself as well.
• Book without a complete file. Tell the new clinic what is still outstanding.

Which records does a new clinic actually need?

Your full record can run to dozens of pages, but five items do most of the work:

1. A treatment summary. One to three pages on your history with the clinic, what was tried and stopped, and what is current. Our post on what a treatment summary is lists what it should contain.
2. Your current prescription details. What you are prescribed, the date of the last prescription, and how many repeats are left.
3. Any approval letter, with its dates. An approval under the TGA’s Special Access Scheme names one prescriber, so it does not move with you. Your new prescriber has to apply afresh, and they need to know the old approval exists and when it ends.
4. Recent letters and results. Letters to and from your GP, reports from other practitioners, and any test results the clinic received.
5. The last few consultation notes. These show how your care has gone recently, which a summary written in a hurry can leave out.

Add a page of your own notes on what has changed since your last review.

How do you ask for them?

Email the clinic, so the request is dated and in writing. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) says on its access to health information page that you, or someone you have authorised such as a guardian, can make the request, and that it generally regards 30 days as a reasonable time to respond.

The OAIC’s APP 12 guidelines add three points that help you here. An organisation cannot charge you for making the request. Any charge for giving access must not be excessive, and can cover things like staff time spent finding and retrieving the record. Access should be given in the manner you ask for, if that is reasonable and practicable, so ask for PDFs by email rather than a posted bundle you then have to scan.

Wording along these lines is enough:

I am moving my care to another clinic. Under Australian Privacy Principle 12, please send me a treatment summary, my current prescription details, a copy of any approval letter, recent letters and results, and my consultation notes from the past 12 months. I would like them as PDFs by email. Please confirm any charge before you prepare them.

Our post on your right to your health records covers the grounds on which a clinic can refuse, and what a refusal has to contain.

Should the records come to you or go straight to the new clinic?

Both routes are normal. The OAIC notes that your current provider might prefer to transfer your record to the new provider rather than give the information to you directly. A direct transfer needs your written consent and the new clinic’s contact details.

A copy in your own hands is worth asking for as well. You can check it is complete and send it again if a file goes missing. Ask for one copy to you and one to the new clinic in the same email.

At LeafLine Clinic, our patient-support team requests your records and treatment summary from your previous clinic once you have given written consent, and we do not charge for requesting or receiving them. Your previous clinic sets its own policy on copies. The changing clinics page sets out how a transfer runs.

How do you pass them to the new clinic?

Send what you have before the first appointment, so the Clinician can read it beforehand. A few habits save time:

• Send PDFs, not photos of a screen. Phone photos of a monitor are often unreadable at the edges.
• Name the files plainly. “Treatment summary, March 2026” tells the reader what it is; “scan0042” does not.
• List what is still missing. One line in the email, such as “approval letter requested 14 October, not yet received”, tells the new clinic what to chase.
• Ask how the clinic prefers to receive documents. Some clinics run a secure upload alongside email.

The step-by-step guide to changing clinics puts these steps in order with the booking and the first consultation.

What if the old clinic is slow?

Silence is the most common problem, and you can escalate it step by step at no cost:

1. Follow up in writing, quoting the date of your first request and asking for a reply within seven days.
2. Write to the clinic’s privacy officer. The privacy policy should name one or give a privacy contact. Use the word “complaint” so it is logged as one.
3. Lodge a complaint with the OAIC if 30 days pass without a reply or the reply does not resolve it. The OAIC says that if you are not happy with a health service provider’s response, you can complain to it.

Book with the new clinic in the meantime. Your new Clinician makes an independent assessment at the first consultation whether or not the full file has arrived, and once you have given consent the new clinic can chase the records from its end too. If your old clinic has closed, our post on treatment summaries covers where records go.

The bottom line

Ask your old clinic in writing for a treatment summary, your current prescription details, any approval letter, recent letters and results, and your last few notes, as PDFs. You cannot be charged for asking, any charge for copies must not be excessive, and 30 days is the OAIC’s general benchmark for a reply. Send what you have to the new clinic before your first appointment and tell them what is still to come.

If you are thinking about moving, the free 10-minute info call is with our patient-support team and involves no clinical assessment.

This article is general information only and is not legal or medical advice. Privacy guidance is from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, read on 27 October 2026.