CTHIn ForceAct
Privacy Act 1988
6FBMeaning of health service
Start here
Get a plain-English read of 6FB
Turn the raw legal text into a practical explanation grounded in Privacy Act 1988.
#### 6FB Meaning of health service
(1) An activity performed in relation to an individual is a health service if the activity is intended or claimed (expressly or otherwise) by the individual or the person performing it:
(a) to assess, maintain or improve the individual’s health; or
(b) where the individual’s health cannot be maintained or improved—to manage the individual’s health; or
(c) to diagnose the individual’s illness, disability or injury; or
(d) to treat the individual’s illness, disability or injury or suspected illness, disability or injury; or
(e) to record the individual’s health for the purposes of assessing, maintaining, improving or managing the individual’s health.
(2) The dispensing on prescription of a drug or medicinal preparation by a pharmacist is a health service.
(3) To avoid doubt:
(a) a reference in this section to an individual’s health includes the individual’s physical or psychological health; and
(b) an activity mentioned in subsection (1) or (2) that takes place in the course of providing aged care, palliative care or care for a person with a disability is a health service.
(4) The regulations may prescribe an activity that, despite subsections (1) and (2) is not to be treated as a health service for the purposes of this Act.