Terms and Conditions of Use

In these terms and conditions of use, “us”, “we”, or “our” means Rural Health Connect Pty Ltd, with the exception that in some clauses herein “we” and “us” may refer to you and “Rural Health Connect Pty Ltd” collectively.

  1. Agreement

    1. By accessing and using our services and functions provided at ruralhealthconnect.com.au you agree to be bound by and to comply with these terms and conditions and any other policies, terms or conditions published on ruralhealthconnect.com.au and notified to you. Our services include delivery through our health professionals of the Commonwealth Government Medicare Mental Health Centres centralised tele-psychology and tele-psychiatry service (known as the Centralised Service).
    2. Our privacy policy published on ruralhealthconnect.com.au/privacy/ (“privacy policy”) forms part of these terms and conditions. By agreeing to these terms and conditions, you acknowledge and agree we will handle your personal information in accordance with our privacy policy and applicable privacy and health records laws, including the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act) and its Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
    3. We may from time to time amend or update these terms and conditions. You are bound by any such new terms and conditions where you continue to use ruralhealthconnect.com.au and/or our services after any such amendment or update of these terms and conditions, where we have provided you with prior notice of the updated or amended terms and conditions.

  2. Important Information

    THE ONLINE SERVICES ACCESSED THROUGH OUR WEBSITE ARE NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS. IF YOU ARE SUFFERING AN ACUTE ILLNESS OR EMERGENCY CONDITION OR ARE IN AN EMERGENCY SITUATION, CALL TRIPLE ZERO (000) AND ASK FOR THE APPROPRIATE HELP.

    OUR ONLINE SERVICES ARE DESIGNED ONLY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE LOCATED WITHIN AUSTRALIA.

  3. Telehealth Services

    1. Our online services may be used to connect you with a Consultant who will provide services to you. Consultants providing telehealth services are accredited and licensed practitioners with an applicable recognised professional qualifications, registration and/or certification in the jurisdictions they practise in.
    2. Consultants provide clinical services independently as contractors, and they are not our employees. We are responsible for facilitating access to Consultants through our online services, but we do not direct or control their clinical judgment in providing professional services. If you feel the services provided to you do not fit your needs or expectations, you may change to a different Consultant who provides services through Rural Health Connect.
    3. You confirm you understand that:
      1. the benefits of telehealth services can include continued access to your Consultant; continued therapeutic support as part of your treatment plan; and avoiding the need for you to travel to your Consultant.
      2. there are potential limitations of telehealth services and that these can include: telehealth services may not feel the same as face-to-face sessions; technical problems could affect the video/sound quality or connection, which may disrupt the session in some ways; and there is a small risk of hacking or others tapping into the video connection; and
      3. you can ask your Consultant questions about the telehealth session at any time. Attending a telehealth/video conferencing session is not compulsory, and you can withdraw consent at any time.

  4. Personal Profile and the Centralised Service

    1. To access services via our website (not via the Centralised Service), you must first create a personal profile. Creating a personal profile will allow you to log in and be recognised as a user across our online services. If you are unable to create your own profile, the Rural Health Connect administration team may support you to do so over the phone, if this is necessary for you to access the services. We will collect and use your personal information only to the extent needed to create this profile.
    2. You hereby confirm that you:
      1. if you are receiving the online services yourself, you have decision-making capacity and are legally able to consent to receive the specific online services proposed for you, and that you are legally able to enter into these terms and conditions;
      2. if you are arranging online services for a child or another person who does not have decision-making capacity, you are authorised to consent to those services on their behalf as a parent, guardian, or other authorised representative, and that you are legally able to enter into these terms and conditions.
    3. Where you provide us with information in relation to your child or children, you warrant that you are the legal guardian of your child and have authority to provide this information to us.
    4. You hereby confirm that all the information that you have provided us, and the information that you will provide us in the future, is accurate, true, current and complete.
    5. You agree, confirm and acknowledge that you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and any other information related to your personal profile. If our administration team assists you to create your personal profile, including by setting an initial password for you, you are responsible for changing that password when you first log in and for keeping your login details secure. If you do not log in or change your password, you remain responsible for keeping any login details provided to you secure and for notifying us immediately if you believe they have been lost, disclosed or used without your authority.
    6. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorised use of our website via your personal profile.
    7. If you access our services as part of the Centralised Service, you will receive these telehealth services as referred by your own Medicare Mental Health Centre (MMHC), and they will be delivered by health professional/s through us. These services will be subject to separate terms which we will make available to you with further information about the Centralised Service.

  5. Payment of Consultation Fees

    1. Unless you access our services via the Centralised Service, when you book a consultation via our website you will be required pay the prescribed consultation fee in full to the consultant (including taxes and charges, if applicable).
    2. You can use a valid referral and Mental Health Treatment Plan to access Bulk Billing and Medicare rebates when you receive relevant services from the consultant. You may also be able to access support via your NDIS, WorkCover or applicable Employee Assistance Program funding.
    3. All payments are managed directly by the consultant. Rural Health Connect does not collect or store any payment information. If relevant, the consultant may send you a separate consent form including applicable information regarding payments, cancellations or claims.
    4. If you access our services as part of the Centralised Service, your telehealth services are funded through the Commonwealth Government. This means you will have no out of pocket expenses accessing a health professional through the Centralised Service. If you use your own device, you may pay for your own data/internet.

  6. Connecting with the Consultant

    1. You will connect with a consultant via phone or online via video conferencing.
    2. When using telehealth, you must not:
      1. attempt to record the video or audio of your video call or take screenshots or copies of images of your video call;
      2. abuse, intimidate, threaten or otherwise violate the consultant; and/or
      3. engage in behaviour that is pornographic, violent, discriminatory or otherwise offensive.
    3. If you engage in any of the above forms of conduct, we (including our consultant) may terminate your video conference call in which case you acknowledge that the consultation fee will not be refunded to you.
    4. You acknowledge that the consultants are neither our employees nor agents nor representatives.
    5. You agree that all consultations between you and a consultant will be made via our website. If, for any reason, a consultation with a consultant is not made via our website, you agree that it will be billed via our website and that the standard consultation fees must be paid to us.

  7. System Requirements

    1. Some services available through this website will require your computer, telephone, internet access, device and associated equipment to meet certain technical requirements in order to receive these services. We take no responsibility for problems associated with or arising from your inability to access or receive the services due to your equipment or internet speed not meeting our system requirements.

  8. Security of Information

    1. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed as totally secure. Whilst we strive to protect such information, we do not warrant and cannot ensure the security of any information which you transmit to us. Accordingly, any information which you transmit to us is transmitted at your own risk. Nevertheless, once we receive your transmission, we will take reasonable steps to preserve the security of such information.

  9. Warranty

    1. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we exclude all implied terms and warranties whether statutory or otherwise relating to this website and the services accessed through our website. We do not make any representation that the website or any services will be uninterrupted or error-free.
    2. We do not make any warranty or representation about the suitability or quality of the services, or the accuracy of any information, provided by the consultants via our website.
    3. Unless you access our services via the Centralised Service , you acknowledge that you have relied on your own skill and judgment in booking a consultation with a consultant and have not relied on any statement or representation by us about the suitability or quality of the services provided by the consultants via our website. If you access our services as part of the Centralised Service, you will receive these telehealth services as referred by your own MMHC, and they will be delivered by health professional/s through us.
    4. You acknowledge and accept that we will not be liable to you for any indirect and/or consequential loss or damage arising from or connected in any way with the use of our website.
    5. Where any law implies a term, and that law voids or prohibits provisions which exclude or modify the operation of such term, then, except as otherwise specified in this section, the term is taken to be included in these terms and conditions. If legislation implies any condition or warranty, and that legislation prohibits us from excluding or modifying the application of, or our liability under, any such condition or warranty, that condition or warranty will be deemed included but our liability will be limited for a breach of that condition or warranty to one or more of the following:
      1. if the breach relates to goods, the replacement of the goods or the supply of equivalent goods, the repair of such goods, the payment of the cost of replacing the goods or of acquiring equivalent goods, or the payment of the cost of having the goods repaired; and
      2. if the breach relates to services, the supplying of the services again, or the payment of the cost of having the services supplied again.

  10. Release and Indemnity

    1. To the maximum extent permitted by law, you release and discharge Rural Health Connect Pty Ltd, its directors, members, employees and agents from any and all liability as a result of your use or misuse of our website and/or any services accessed via our website.
    2. You agree to indemnify Rural Health Connect Pty Ltd, its directors, members, employees and agents from any and all claims, demands, costs, losses and liabilities arising out of or in connection with your use or misuse of our website.

  11. Dispute Resolution

    1. You acknowledge and agree that we will endeavor to settle any dispute arising out of or relating to our dealings by mediation before having recourse to litigation.
    2. You agree that we will agree on a suitably qualified mediator to conduct the mediation and the mediator’s costs will be borne equally between us.
    3. If we cannot agree on the appointment of a mediator, either of us may ask the President (at the time) of the Queensland Law Society to nominate a mediator. The nomination of a mediator by the President of the Queensland Law Society is binding on the parties.

  12. Termination of Access

    1. Access to this web site may be terminated at any time by us without notice. Our disclaimers will nevertheless survive any such termination.

  13. Governing Law

    1. These terms and conditions and any dispute arising out of or in connection with them or the subject matter of them are governed by the laws in force in the State of Queensland, in the Commonwealth of Australia. You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of that jurisdiction.

  14. General

    1. We accept no liability for any failure to comply with these terms and conditions where such failure is due to circumstance beyond our reasonable control.
    2. If we waive any rights available to us under these terms and conditions on one occasion, this does not means that those rights will automatically be waived on any other occasion.
    3. If any of these terms and conditions are held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, the remaining terms and conditions shall nevertheless continue in full force.

  15. Contacting Rural Health Connect

    1. If you wish to make an enquiry regarding our website, these terms and conditions, or our privacy policy, including any enquiry about the collection and use of your personal information, please contact us at:

      2. Rural Health Connect Pty Ltd
      19A East St
      Rockhampton 4700
      Email: info@ruralhealthconnect.com.au

    2. You may also wish to make enquires about the Centralised Service through your MMHC.