PracMinders is an Australian administrative services company that supports private-practice health practitioners with contingency planning and patient record custodianship. We help practitioners put practical administrative arrangements in place for practice interruption, practice exit, and long-term record management — before those arrangements are urgently needed. Our role is administrative and non-clinical. We do not provide healthcare, legal advice, or clinical support of any kind.
PracMinders is for private-practice health practitioners across Australia who are responsible for maintaining their own patients’ health records. This includes psychologists, GPs, allied health professionals, counsellors, psychotherapists, dentists, private nurses, and any registered or credentialled health professional operating independently or in a group practice where they hold their own records. If you practise privately and your patient records are your responsibility, PracMinders was built for you.
Most contingency planning for private practitioners amounts to a document — a list of contacts, a note in a will, or an informal agreement with a colleague. Those arrangements often look adequate on paper but fall apart under pressure: the colleague is unavailable, the document can’t be found, no one has the PMS access details, or the family member left in charge doesn’t know what they’re holding. PracMinders is a documented, held, and executable service. Your plan is securely stored with us, your Authorised Notifiers know exactly what to do, and when the plan is activated, a defined set of administrative actions is carried out on your behalf. We also include Legacy Readiness in both contingency plans, so that if you die or become permanently incapacitated, the people responsible for your records have what they need to arrange custodianship without delay or confusion.
A Practice Contingency Plan (PCP) is a set of documented administrative arrangements that sits securely with PracMinders and is activated by a nominated person when you become unavailable or unable to manage your practice. On activation, PracMinders carries out defined administrative tasks on your behalf — including cancelling appointments, communicating with patients about their cancelled sessions, notifying referrers of the disruption, and supporting practice transition administration. The plan covers the administrative side only. It does not involve clinical care of any kind.
Core PCP includes two types of administrative support: Practice Suspension Support and Practice Transition Support. Each requires a separate activation request, included once per subscription period. Practice Suspension Support handles the immediate step — cancelling appointments and notifying patients — and can be activated at any stage, including where the situation is initially uncertain. Practice Transition Support covers the full permanent closure process. Core is best suited to practitioners who already have reliable administrative support (such as a receptionist or practice manager) who can manage day-to-day and temporary absences independently. Core Plus PCP includes three types of administrative support per subscription period: Flexible Absence Management, Practice Suspension Support, and Practice Transition Support. Flexible Absence Management is the key difference from Core — designed for temporary or evolving situations, it works by cancelling appointments for a nominated period that can be extended before it lapses. Core Plus is the right choice if you don’t have reliable in-practice admin support, or if you want PracMinders to be able to step in from the moment an absence begins, regardless of whether it turns out to be temporary or permanent.
When a practitioner or Authorised Notifier submits an activation request, PracMinders acknowledges receipt and begins the verification process.
As an indicative target, if a request is received and verified by 3:00 pm AEST on a business day, we aim to have the next business day’s appointments cancelled in advance. If it’s received after 3:00 pm, we aim for the following business day. Where it’s safe and practical to do so, we may act sooner.
Timing can also depend on having the access and information we need, and on the availability of your PMS and related systems.
Yes — and you should. Your plan should be reviewed periodically to ensure the information remains accurate and workable. This includes keeping Authorised Notifier details current, confirming PMS access arrangements, and updating referrer and practice contact details. PracMinders will prompt you to review your plan at intervals, but you are responsible for initiating updates when your circumstances change. Contact PracMinders to make changes at any time.
An Authorised Notifier is the person — or one of the people — you have nominated to contact PracMinders and request activation of your contingency plan. They are the person PracMinders has been authorised to receive that request from. You need an Authorised Notifier because, by definition, you will not be available to contact PracMinders yourself when the plan needs to be activated. A clearly nominated and verified contact ensures the plan can be set in motion without delay, and without ambiguity about who is permitted to make that request.
An Authorised Notifier’s role is straightforward: they contact PracMinders when they believe the plan needs to be activated, and they participate in the verification process. That’s it. They do not manage the plan, carry out administrative tasks, take on any clinical or legal responsibility, or act as a practice manager. Once the activation request is verified, PracMinders carries out the defined administrative steps. The Authorised Notifier’s job is to provide the trigger.
The best Authorised Notifier is someone who will realistically know when your plan needs to be activated, and who you trust to act promptly in that situation. Common choices include a spouse or partner, a close family member, a trusted colleague, a practice manager, or a solicitor. It is worth nominating more than one person, so there is redundancy if your primary contact is also unavailable in the circumstances that trigger the plan. To change your Authorised Notifier at any time, contact PracMinders directly. We will update your plan documentation accordingly.
When you set up your plan, PracMinders records information about each Authorised Notifier as part of the documentation process. When an activation request is received, PracMinders follows a verification process to confirm the request is coming from an authorised person before any administrative actions are taken.
When an Authorised Notifier contacts us or submits a Valid Activation Request:
No action is taken based on a single unverified message. PracMinders does not act on an Activation Request until verification requirements are satisfied.
PracMinders’ verification process is designed to confirm not just who is making the request, but that the request aligns with the terms of the plan. Therefore, it’s important to choose the plan that best matches how you want decisions made in your absence.
Core Plus supports more flexible absence management (for example, nominating a shorter absence period first and extending if needed), which can reduce the risk of taking more extensive actions than are needed.
Core is best suited to situations where you have clear, pre-agreed instructions and/or your own administrative support, as it is less suited to flexible, ongoing absence decisions.
Combining the best plan for your circumstances with clear instructions to your Authorised Notifier about your wishes is an essential step you take when you first set up a plan with us.
PracMinders also applies verification measures to help ensure Activation Requests are legitimate. We notify you promptly (by email and, where available, SMS) and provide an opportunity to pause or stop the process.
However, if we do not hear from you within 90 minutes of notification, we may proceed in accordance with the Plan and the Activation Request as submitted by the Authorised Notifier.
PracMinders may not be able to reverse some administrative actions once they have taken place.
The Legacy Readiness Plan is a preparation-only service for practitioners who want to organise the administrative groundwork for future record custodianship — before they retire or exit practice.
It helps ensure that if you die or become permanently incapacitated before formally entering into a Legacy Plan, the people who take on responsibility for your records have everything in place to do so without delay or uncertainty.
Under Legacy Readiness, PracMinders works with you to document and organise key information, including your PMS access details, practice and system information, key contacts, legal representative details, and your wishes regarding record custodianship.
This information is securely held by PracMinders and is designed to make the transition to a Legacy Plan as straightforward as possible when the time comes.
No. Legacy Readiness is preparation only. PracMinders does not transfer, store, or take custodianship of patient records under this plan.
Active record custodianship requires a separate Legacy Plan, which must be formally entered into by you or, where applicable, the person with legal responsibility for your records.
No. Legacy Readiness is included in both the Core PCP and Core Plus PCP. If you’re already on either of those plans, you don’t need to purchase it separately.
The standalone Legacy Readiness Plan is designed for practitioners who aren’t on a Core or Core Plus plan but want to prepare the groundwork for future record custodianship.
The straightforward answer is: before you need it. Legacy Readiness is most useful when it’s in place well ahead of any planned retirement, practice exit, or unexpected disruption.
Many practitioners set it up alongside other professional planning — reviewing their will, updating their estate plan, or preparing for a change in their practice arrangements. The earlier the groundwork is in place, the less your loved ones or legal representatives will need to work out under pressure.
The Legacy Plan is PracMinders’ patient health record custodianship service. It is for practitioners who have permanently exited practice — whether through planned retirement, unexpected incapacity, or death. Under the Legacy Plan, PracMinders takes on the secure administrative custodianship of patient health records for the legally required retention period, manages administrative responses to patient access requests, and carries out lawful disposal of records at the end of the retention period. The Legacy Plan is a separate service from the contingency plans. It does not form part of the Core or Core Plus PCP and must be formally entered into by whoever holds legal responsibility for the patient records.
The Legacy Plan can be entered into by the practitioner directly — for example, when planning an orderly retirement or practice closure — or by the person who has legal responsibility or ownership of the patient health records after the practitioner’s exit. This includes the estate of a deceased practitioner, a legal personal representative, or an appointed guardian or administrator in cases of permanent incapacity. Because the Legacy Plan involves a formal service agreement and the transfer of legal custodianship, it must be entered into by the appropriate person with verified authority. PracMinders will guide whoever is in that position through the requirements.
PracMinders manages patient health records for the duration of the legally required retention period. Under Australian law, patient health records must be retained for a minimum of seven years from the date of last entry for adult patients. For patients who were minors at the time of treatment, records must be retained until the patient turns 25, or for seven years from the date of last entry — whichever is the longer period. State and territory legislation may impose additional retention obligations. PracMinders manages these requirements as part of the Legacy Plan.
When patient health records reach the end of their legally required retention period, PracMinders manages the lawful disposal process in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and applicable state and territory legislation. This includes securely destroying records in a way that renders the information unrecoverable. PracMinders does not retain records beyond the period required by law unless otherwise required.
Yes. Under the Legacy Plan, PracMinders manages administrative responses to patient requests for access to their records. This means acknowledging the request, facilitating access in accordance with applicable privacy law, and providing the records in a format agreed under the service terms. PracMinders handles the administrative process only — it does not provide clinical information, clinical context, or clinical commentary to patients.
PracMinders’ Legacy Plan is designed to work with records held in a Practice Management System, and PMS access is a key part of how records are transferred to PracMinders’ custody. If your records are held differently — in a different system, in physical files, or across multiple formats — please contact PracMinders to discuss your specific circumstances. We will let you know whether and how we can accommodate your situation.
A colleague’s status as a registered health practitioner does not make them an authorised custodian of your patient health records. Informal custodianship arrangements — even with well-intentioned colleagues — can create significant complications around legal authority, privacy obligations, secure storage, access and retrieval, retention management, and eventual lawful disposal. Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), health information is sensitive information and is subject to stringent requirements. If another person is to hold your records, there must be a clear lawful basis, verified authority, and documented arrangements in place. A casual agreement, however well-meaning, is unlikely to satisfy those requirements. A colleague may be able to assist in some circumstances, but this generally requires a properly structured custodial or administrative arrangement, not an informal favour. PracMinders’ Legacy Plan is designed to provide exactly the kind of clear, compliant, and documented custodianship arrangement that informal solutions cannot reliably offer.
PracMinders operates with a thorough understanding of the Australian legal and regulatory framework governing private health practitioners and patient health records. This includes the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), and applicable state and territory health records legislation. PracMinders’ services are designed to support practitioners in meeting their legal obligations around record retention, access, security, and disposal — not to replace those obligations or substitute for independent legal advice. PracMinders is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Practitioners with specific compliance questions should consult their professional body’s guidance and, where appropriate, their own legal adviser.
All information is stored on encrypted Australian-based servers. PracMinders does not transfer or store any clinical patient health data outside Australia.
PracMinders does not collect, store, or manage your personal passwords.
Access to your Practice Management System and any related platforms is provided by you through secure, role-based user access wherever possible. This means you invite PracMinders as an authorised user within your system using a unique PracMinders email address provided to you, rather than sharing your own login credentials. This ensures access is clearly attributable, limited to the permissions you assign, and easily revoked at any time.
Where a platform requires a dedicated access password rather than role-based access, PracMinders generates a strong, unique credential and stores it in a secure, encrypted vault. This credential is held separately from your practice details and contingency plan information, and is not embedded in your customer record or operational files. This separation provides an additional layer of protection for your system access.
Access credentials are restricted to authorised PracMinders staff, protected by robust authentication controls, and supported by audit logging.
Where system access is used, PracMinders will notify you when access occurs, for example following the activation of your contingency plan or when agreed administrative actions are required. This provides transparency about when and why your systems are accessed.
We only access your PMS to carry out the specific administrative actions set out in your plan. We do not access financial or clinical information beyond what is required to perform those agreed tasks, and credentials are never used for any purpose outside your instructions.
This approach ensures your systems remain secure, auditable, and compliant, while allowing PracMinders to act quickly, transparently, and lawfully when support is needed.
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest using industry-standard AES-256 encryption. Access is restricted by robust authentication controls and strict role-based permissions.
Access to your plan information and, where applicable, patient health records under the Legacy Plan is strictly limited. Within PracMinders, access is restricted to personnel who require it to carry out the specific administrative functions defined in your service agreement. Every access is logged, timestamped, and auditable. PracMinders does not share your information with third parties except as required by law or as explicitly provided for in the service agreement.
In the event of a data breach involving personal information, PracMinders’ response obligations are governed by the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). If a breach is likely to result in serious harm to individuals, PracMinders is required to notify both the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and affected individuals. PracMinders maintains an incident response process to detect, contain, and respond to data security incidents promptly.
Choose your plan from our website – Core, Core Plus, Legacy Readiness, or Legacy – and complete setup online.
Setting up your plan requires a few key pieces of information: your practice details and key contacts, the names and contact details of your nominated Authorised Notifiers, your Practice Management Software details and access arrangements, your preferences for how patients and referrers should be communicated with if the plan is activated, and — where Legacy Readiness is relevant — your documented wishes regarding future record custodianship. PracMinders will guide you through each step during the onboarding process.
PMS access is central to what PracMinders does. When a contingency plan is activated, many of the administrative tasks — cancelling appointments, blocking bookings, preparing financial reports, supporting patient discharge administration — require access to your PMS. For the Legacy Plan, PMS access is how patient health records are securely transferred to PracMinders’ custody. Without PMS access, PracMinders cannot carry out the core administrative functions it is engaged to perform. Your access credentials are held securely and used only for the purposes defined in your service agreement. We will not view clinical data beyond what is required for lawful notifications or storage. Key activities within your PMS are logged, timestamped, and auditable, and we never access your PMS outside of the initial verification process, or if your plan has been activated, to complete the required tasks.
PracMinders will provide you with a unique email address to invite as a user within your Practice Management System (PMS). Access must allow us to cancel appointments, notify patients and referrers, block your online calendar, and bulk-download patient files when required.
Once we receive the invitation, we’ll log in (and notify you when we do) to confirm the access level is sufficient. We will not access your PMS outside of activation or verification. Key actions we take are logged and auditable.
The account credentials we use to access your PMS are stored in a secure, encrypted vault-based password management system protected by multi-factor authentication and strict access controls.
Most practitioners can complete plan setup in a single session. The time required depends largely on how readily your practice information, PMS details, and Authorised Notifier contacts are to hand. PracMinders will guide you through the process efficiently, and can work around your schedule if you need to gather information before completing setup. Most plans are verified and ready within 3–5 business days, depending on the duration of the PMS verification process.
No. PracMinders is an administrative services company. It does not provide legal advice, clinical advice, or any form of professional advice regulated by a licensing or registration body. When PracMinders refers to legal obligations — such as record retention requirements or privacy law — it is describing what Australian law requires of practitioners, not advising practitioners on their individual legal position. Practitioners with legal or clinical questions should consult a qualified solicitor or their professional body.
PracMinders’ services are designed to support practitioners in meeting their administrative obligations under Australian law and professional standards, including the requirements of AHPRA and the relevant National Boards regarding practice contingency planning and record management. However, PracMinders cannot guarantee that any individual practitioner’s obligations are fully met by using our services — that depends on the practitioner’s specific circumstances, the relevant professional standards that apply to them, and how the service is implemented. Using PracMinders is not a substitute for reviewing your own obligations. We recommend practitioners also consult their professional body’s guidance on contingency planning and record keeping.
PracMinders’ services are designed for individual private practitioners who hold their own patient records. If you practise in a group setting but maintain your own patient records independently — as many psychologists, allied health professionals, and other practitioners do — you can engage PracMinders as an individual. PracMinders does not currently offer a group practice product that covers multiple practitioners under a single agreement. If you are considering PracMinders for your practice and more than one practitioner is involved, each would need to engage PracMinders individually.
Larger or multi-location groups may be eligible under a single agreement by arrangement, depending on PMS access and structure. Contact us to discuss your specific arrangement.
Informal arrangements with colleagues are common — and often inadequate when they need to be used. The most frequent problems are: the colleague doesn’t have PMS access when it’s needed, they are also unavailable at the relevant time, there’s no documented record of what they agreed to do, or the scope of what they can legally do as a custodian of another practitioner’s records is unclear.
Under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), Schedule 1, Australian Privacy Principle 3, health information can only be collected if it is reasonably necessary for the entity’s functions or activities. A colleague can only lawfully access or hold patient information if it is necessary for providing treatment and the patient has consented to that transfer. However, this legal basis may not extend to archived or discharged patient records. Once a patient is no longer in active treatment, a colleague may not have a legitimate professional reason to collect or store that information, and to do so may breach APP 3 and state health-record laws.
A colleague’s goodwill is valuable, but goodwill alone cannot substitute for documented authority, secure access, privacy compliance, and a defined process for retention and eventual disposal. If you want to nominate a colleague as your Authorised Notifier, that is entirely possible within a PracMinders plan. What PracMinders provides is the administrative infrastructure that makes the arrangement workable, compliant, and executable.
You can reach us by email at contact@pracminders.com.au
We respond to most enquiries within one business day.
If you are unsure which plan suits your circumstances, contact PracMinders directly. We are happy to discuss your situation and help you understand the differences between the Core PCP, Core Plus PCP, Legacy Plan, and Legacy Readiness Plan — and which one, or combination, is most appropriate for where you are in your practice lifecycle. There is no obligation involved in an initial conversation.
