Patient guide
What to do when your telehealth clinic closes or stops prescribing
Clinics close, change direction or lose their prescriber, and patients sometimes hear about it with little notice. This guide covers the practical side: getting your records, why your approval does not move with you, how to avoid a gap, and what to bring to a new clinic. It is general information, not medical or legal advice.
Checked against the OAIC and the Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner on 27 October 2026. Rules change; check the official pages before you rely on this.
The short answer
- Ask for your records in writing as soon as you hear the clinic is closing or stopping prescribing. You have a right of access under the Australian Privacy Principles, and the OAIC treats 30 days as a reasonable time to respond.
- Your approval was granted to your prescriber, not to you. A new prescriber cannot use it and makes a new application to the TGA.
- Work out today how much of your medicine you have left and what remains on your current prescription, then book with a new clinic well before that date.
- Bring your records, a copy of your approval letter, your current prescription details and a list of everything you take to the first appointment.
- Check that any new clinic is legitimate before you pay. The AHPRA register and ABN Lookup are both free.
Changing clinics
Moving your care from another clinic?
Our changing clinics page explains what to bring: your current prescription details and, if you have one, a treatment summary. A LeafLine Clinician reviews your history at a first consultation and decides what happens next.
Start here
Three things that hold whatever the reason for the closure
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Your records are still yours to access
A clinic closing does not end your right to see your health information. The obligation sits with whoever holds the records, and in Victoria a closing practice must tell patients where they will be.
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The approval stays with the prescriber
The TGA grants a Special Access Scheme Category B approval to the practitioner who applied. When that practitioner stops prescribing for you, the approval cannot pass to anyone else.
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A new application takes time
A new clinic needs a consultation, an application and a few days of TGA processing before it can prescribe. Starting early is the most reliable way to avoid a gap.
Your records
Ask for your records first, and ask in writing
Under the Australian Privacy Principles you have a right to access the personal information a private health service holds about you, and that includes your health information. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) says an organisation must respond within a reasonable period, and that it considers 30 days reasonable. Asking is free. The clinic can charge for giving you access, but the charge cannot be excessive, and a refusal has to come with written reasons. Our post on your right to your health records goes through the request in detail.
Send the request as soon as you hear about the closure, while the clinic's inbox and phone line are still staffed. Ask for your consultation notes, any test results, a copy of your approval letter and the details of your current prescription. A treatment summary is often more useful to a new clinic than the full file; our post on treatment summaries explains what one contains. You can also ask the clinic to send everything straight to your new provider.
In Victoria, the Health Records Act requires a health service provider that closes to notify current and former patients through a public notice, with a notice in the practice and letters to current patients, saying what will happen to the records and how to get them. A private provider in Victoria cannot delete health information until seven years after it last provided you a service, or until you turn 25 if you were under 18 at the time. Other states and territories have their own rules. If you cannot reach anyone at the clinic, the health complaints body in your state or territory and the OAIC can both take a complaint; our guide to raising a concern lists all eight bodies.
A copy of your approval letter helps a new prescriber prepare a fresh application.
Your approval
Why a new prescriber starts a new application
If you have been prescribed an unapproved medicine under the TGA's Special Access Scheme, your prescription rests on a Category B approval. The TGA grants that approval to the practitioner who applied, for you, and only that practitioner can prescribe under it. When your prescriber stops prescribing, whether the whole clinic closes or only that service ends, the approval cannot be handed to someone else.
A new prescriber has to assess you and make their own application. The TGA states that it processes Category B applications in 2 to 5 days, longer if it needs more information. Some states and territories also require their own approval or permit, which attaches to the prescriber and adds its own step. None of that can start until your first consultation with the new clinic, which is why the date you book matters more than anything else on this page.
Our guides on your approval and when it expires and when your Clinician changes cover the approval rules in more detail.
Avoiding a gap
Count back from the day you would run out
Start with two facts: how much of your medicine you have on hand, and what is left on your current prescription. Your pharmacy can tell you the second. From those, work out the date you would run out, then count back. A new clinic needs time to book you in, a consultation, an application to the TGA and a few days for the pharmacy to supply once everything is approved. Book your first appointment with a new clinic as soon as you can, and tell the clinic your date when you book so it can plan around it.
If you will run out before you can be seen, say so to the new clinic and speak to a pharmacist or your GP. Do not change how you take your medicine on your own to make it last longer.
Bring as much as you can to the first consultation: your records or a treatment summary, a copy of your approval letter, the details of your current prescription and the pharmacy that dispensed it, a list of everything you take and how much, and your GP's details. If the records have not arrived yet, book anyway and send them on when they do. Our checklist for getting ready for a first telehealth consultation covers the rest of the preparation.
Before you pay a new clinic, check that it is legitimate. Search its practitioners on the AHPRA register, look the business up on ABN Lookup and read its fee schedule and privacy policy. Our post on how to check a telehealth clinic is legitimate walks through each check.
Moving to a new clinic
The transfer itself, step by step
Once your records are requested and you know your date, the move follows a set order: choose the clinic, book, send what you have, attend the consultation, then wait for the new application and the pharmacy. Our guide to changing clinics step by step sets out each stage, and our changing clinics page explains how LeafLine Clinic handles a transfer.
Current at 27 October 2026. General information, not medical or legal advice. Sources: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, Access your personal information (read 27 October 2026); Victorian Health Complaints Commissioner, Health records pages for individuals and for providers (read 27 October 2026); TGA, Access to unapproved therapeutic goods for individual patients (Special Access Scheme) (last updated 3 December 2025, read 16 October 2026; the TGA site did not respond on 27 October). We have covered the rules on records at closure for Victoria only. The point about state and territory approvals rests on the sources listed in our guide to when your Clinician changes.
When your clinic closes: common questions
What happens to my medical records if a clinic closes?
The records still have to be kept and you can still ask for them. In Victoria, a health service provider that closes must post a public notice saying what will happen to its records and how patients can access them, and a private provider cannot delete health information until seven years after it last provided a service. Other states and territories have their own rules. This is general information, not legal advice.
How do I get my records from a clinic that has closed?
Write to the clinic’s last known email or postal address and ask for a copy of your records, or for them to be sent to your new clinic. Check its website or any notice it published for where the records have gone. The OAIC treats 30 days as a reasonable time to respond. If nobody answers, contact the health complaints body in your state or territory, or the OAIC.
Can my new clinic use my old SAS-B approval?
No. The TGA grants a Category B approval to the practitioner who applied, and only that practitioner can prescribe under it. Your new prescriber assesses you and makes a new application. A copy of your previous approval letter helps them prepare it.
How long does a new SAS-B approval take?
The TGA states that it processes Category B applications in 2 to 5 days, and longer if it needs more information from the prescriber. That time comes after your first consultation with the new clinic, and some states and territories have their own approval step as well.
How do I avoid running out of my medicine when changing clinics?
Work out how much you have left and what remains on your current prescription, then book with a new clinic straight away and tell it your date when you book. If you will run out before you can be seen, speak to a pharmacist or your GP rather than changing how you take anything on your own.
What should I bring to a new telehealth clinic?
Your records or a treatment summary from the old clinic, a copy of your approval letter, the details of your current prescription and the pharmacy that dispensed it, a list of everything you take and how much, and your GP’s details. If you are still waiting on records, book anyway and send them when they arrive.
How do I know a new telehealth clinic is legitimate?
Search the practitioners on the AHPRA register, look the business up on ABN Lookup, read its privacy policy and fee schedule, and check that a real consultation happens before any prescription. Our post on checking a telehealth clinic walks through each step.
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