Can I have access to information about me?

What is Freedom of Information?

The Victorian Freedom of Information Act 1982 (‘FOI Act’) gives persons the general right, subject to specified exceptions, to access information held by agencies, departments and authorities of the Victorian Government.

Alfred Health is an agency under the FOI Act.

Find out more about making an FOI application.

What is a document?

Documents include those held in Alfred Health files or records, or held by an individual employee for the purpose of discharging his/her duties. This includes documents in both paper and electronic format.

Examples of documents are books, scans, photographs, reports and documents stored in a database or spreadsheet.

What documents are covered by the FOI Act?

The FOI Act covers documents in the possession of Alfred Health whether created by us or received by us, other than library material maintained for reference purposes.

What documents are not available?

The FOI Act allows for access to information to be denied in certain circumstances. In some cases access to the whole document is denied and in others access may be given with the exempt material deleted.

What documents may be exempt?

Examples of documents that may be exempt are:

• documents affecting personal privacy, including the privacy of a deceased person. This exemption does not apply where the person seeking access to the document is the person who is the subject of the information
• documents that contain health information concerning the person making the request where it is believed on reasonable grounds that the release of the information would endanger the life or health that person or another person
• documents affecting legal proceedings
• documents where disclosure would be contrary to the public interest, including internal working documents, documents containing material obtained in confidence and documents relating to matters of a business, commercial or financial nature.