What is Right to Information and Information Privacy

Right to Information is a process created by the Queensland Government you can use to access information government agencies have.

Under Right to Information you have a right, with some exceptions, to access information we hold including:

Our Right to Information and Information Privacy policies are based on the Right to Information Act 2009 and Information Privacy Act 2009. The Acts help:

  • make sure our community has equal access to our information
  • protect people’s privacy.

You can learn more about Right to Information requests on the Right to Information website.

We'll release most information unless there’s a good reason not to. We won’t release non-personal information if it’s not in the public interest. If we don’t release the information you ask for, we’ll tell you why.

Access your health record or amend your personal information

You can usually get a copy of your health record without a Right to Information request.

If you’ve applied for your health record, you can ask to have personal information changed if you think it’s wrong, misleading, or out of date.

Use the personal information amendment application form on the Right to Information website. You can also ask the Right to Information officer at the hospital that treated you for a copy of the form. Email it to the hospital that treated you.

If you were treated in the Fraser Coast, Hervey Bay or Maryborough.

If you were treated in Bundaberg or at any of our other hospitals.

For some health records you might need to make a Right to Information request. Contact us to check.

If you’re a GP or health professional, you can access your patient’s health record through the Health Provider Portal.

Hospital and health service information requests

We regularly publish information including our financial performance, strategy and board meeting summaries. Before you make a Right to Information request, check if the information is already available on:

You can also find information on the Queensland Government’s Open Data Portal website.

If you want information from a specific hospital or health service you can contact them directly. You can find their contact information on our hospital and health services page.

Depending on the information you want, they may be able to:

  • show you where to find the information
  • give you a copy
  • refer you to our legal services unit or health information coordinator.

If you’re referred to our legal services unit or health information coordinator, you’ll need to make a formal Right to Information request.

How to make a formal Right to Information request

Download and fill in the Right to Information application PDF form on the Queensland Government’s SmartService website or use the online form.

If you're using the PDF form, send your application to us via email or post. You'll also need to provide certified evidence of your identity.

Call us if you need help with your application.

If your application is about our services in the Fraser Coast, Hervey Bay or Maryborough send your application to our legal services unit.

If your application is about Bundaberg or any of our other services send your application to our information access unit.

You'll need to pay an application fee and there may be other costs. Learn more about fees and charges on the Right to Information website. We’ll let you know how much your application will cost when we get it.

After you make a request

We'll review your request and let you know our decision in 25 business days. We'll also let you know if we need more time to process it. This can happen if we need to involve another government agency or organisation.

When we give you our decision, we’ll either:

  • give you the requested documents
  • deny your request if it’s not in the public interest.

We’ll let you know if the documents you're requesting don’t exist or if we don’t have them. We might also remove information from the documents if it’s not relevant to your request.

If you’re unhappy with our decision, you can ask us to do an internal review. You can also apply for an external review with the Office of the Information Commissioner.

You must apply for a review within 20 business days from the date of our decision.

Disclosure log

We publish all non-personal Right to Information requests in our disclosure log. We won't publish personal information.

Last updated: September 2023

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