Clinic Terms & Conditions
Our agreement: Who is this agreement between? This agreement is between Gullyville Trust (trading as Raintree Chinese Medicine) and you (the person booking this appointment with us).
How long will this agreement last? This agreement will commence when you accept it and will last until the parties have performed their obligations under this agreement (i.e., when you have paid our fees and we have delivered our services). The terms of this agreement will apply to all subsequent appointments you book with us and by booking another appointment with us, you're agreeing to be bound by the terms of this agreement.
Which clauses will continue to apply? Even if this agreement is terminated, the following clauses will continue to apply: Confidentiality; Intellectual property; Warranties and indemnities; 'What happens if we disagree?' (dispute resolution).
How can changes be made to this agreement? We may update our terms from time to time by updating them on our website, including on our online booking system. If you continue to book appointments with us after being made aware of the changes to our terms, you'll be taken to have accepted our updated terms.
How you can accept this agreement: You can accept this agreement by booking an appointment with us online, in-person at our clinic, or over the phone.
Our relationship: Your responsibilities
You agree to: a) complete any onboarding forms required of you in a timely manner; b) complete our consent forms prior to your appointment in order to receive treatment from us. You must consult with your medical doctor if you're unsure about how our treatment will interact with your health, pre-existing conditions, pregnancy, other medical treatments, or medications. c) notify us as soon as possible if your contact or personal details change; d) pay our fees in a timely manner (including any applicable cancellation or late fees) and no later than the due date; e) provide us with comprehensive, reliable, up to date information that we may need to deliver our services to you (e.g., by providing details of any health conditions we need to be aware of); and f) communicate openly and honestly with us and in a timely manner (we'll do the same for you).
How we treat each other:
It's important that we show each other mutual respect and treat each other in a way that isn't aggressive, dishonest, hostile, inappropriate, harassing, discriminatory, or which other poses a risk to our health and safety or property. We make this commitment to you on behalf of our staff, and we expect that you, and anyone you bring along with you to support your health journey will do the same. Either of us can terminate our session together if we the other person continues to behave in a way that doesn't comply with this clause after being asked to stop.
The scope of our work
What work will we do? We offer a wholistic approach to your treatment by providing access to the following services: a) acupuncture; b) Chinese herbal medicine; c) cupping; d) gua sha; e) massage; f) moxibustion; g) heat therapy; h) Chinese medicine nutrition; and j) other services to naturally support fertility, IVF, pregnancy and women's hormonal health. Specific services we'll provide to you will be agreed with you at the time of booking your appointment with us and confirmed with you prior to treatment commencing in session. If you booked your appointment using our online booking system, your appointment type will be pre-selected as part of this process.
Ensure our services are right for you. Traditional Chinese medicine is an industry regulated by the Chinese Medicine Board of the Australia Health Practitioners Regulation Association (AHPRA). We are required to adhere to guidelines for practice, including infection control guidelines. Acupuncture practitioners are also required to be registered with AHPRA. It's important that you understand that Chinese medicine is a complementary medicine and is not intended as a substitute for primary medical advice or treatment. We aim to support your health journey, but Chinese medicine may not be suitable for all conditions, including medical emergencies. If you're at all unsure, you must speak with our practitioner and your medical doctor. We'll explain the services we provide to you and discuss any potential side effects before we get started. If you're unsure about how these treatments will affect you, you should ask your practitioner. If you are unsure about how our services will interact with a medication, medical condition, or other health concern you must consult with your doctor prior to using our services.
It's your responsibility to ensure that our services are right for you.
Making changes:
When you book in for a herbal or online consult only, you're booking in for a specific treatment. If you need to change your appointment type, please provide us with as much notice as possible. Unless we agree otherwise, we won't be able to make last minute changes to your appointment type or treatment. This is because the clinician has taken the time to prepare to deliver a particular type of treatment to you and may not be ready or able to provide another type of treatment at short notice. If you would like to change your appointment type, this is up to the availability and discretion of the clinician. If you request a change less than 24hrs in advance that can't be accommodated, it will be treated as cancellation by you. If you are booked in for an appointment other than a herbs only or online consultation, we appreciate but don't require advance notice.
Money matters:
What do we charge? The fees for our treatments are listed on our website and are displayed when selecting an appointment type on our online booking platform.
You agree to pay us the fees for the treatment you receive. When we talk about money, unless we say otherwise, we're talking about Australian Dollars (AUD).
What happens if you receive an additional treatment? From time to time, we may be able to offer you treatments in addition to the services you booked in for. If this happens, you agree to pay us the fees for any such additional treatments you receive during your appointment in accordance with the fees listed on our website.
Deposits: We may require you to pay a deposit for certain appointment types. We ask for a deposit as a way of protecting our legitimate business interests. This means that our deposit is reflective of the loss of time, effort, cost, and opportunity if you cancel your appointment. For this reason, if you cancel your appointment without providing us with at least 24 hours' notice prior to your appointment, the deposit will not be refunded. For more information, read our cancellation clause set out in these terms.
How you can pay us: You can pay in clinic using EFTPOS or cash. You can choose to pay in full upfront or at the end of your consult. If you choose to pay at the end of your consult, we may require you to pay a deposit. If you book online, you'll be charged the full amount upfront. If your appointment is subject to a deposit, you'll be required to pay your deposit when booking. If you're paying the full amount upfront, you won't need to pay a separate deposit.
Accessing rebates : We use HICAPS to process your health insurance rebates. Please ensure that you bring your health insurance card with you if you intend to claim. We are unable to process Medicare rebates at this time.
What happens if you don't pay us? If you don't pay us, we can choose to do one or a combination of the following: a) suspend or terminate this agreement; b) charge interest on outstanding money at a rate of 10% per annum from the date you owe us the money until you pay us; and/or c) refer the matter to a debt collector or lawyer (you'll have to pay their costs).
Receiving treatment from us: To receive treatment from us, you must sign our consent forms prior to your appointment. Our consent forms cover the following information: a) pre-existing conditions; b) risks; and c) informed consent.
Your expectations: We deliver our services with due care and skill and use our professional judgement to provide your treatment. However, each person will react differently to treatments and procedures, and we can't guarantee the success or effectivity of any treatment that we administer. Please don't rely on anything on our website or social media as evidence of results achieved using our treatments or as measure of results you can expect to achieve from our treatments. If you have any questions or concerns, please discuss these with your practitioner.
Reminders and making contact: You consent to us using your personal information to contact you for the purpose of sending you appointment reminders, communicating with you are about your treatment, processing payments and as required to deliver our services to you. If you'd prefer not to receive appointment reminders, please let us know by emailing our practice manager at Renee@reneetreechinesemedicine.com.au. You can find more information about how we collect, store, and use your personal information in our Privacy Policy, located on our website at https://raintree-chinese-medicine.netlify.app/privacy
Confidentiality:
Client confidential information: Your personal and medical information is confidential and will not be shared other than as set out in this agreement, our consent forms, or in our Privacy Policy, located
https://raintree-chinese-medicine.netlify.app/privacy
Confidential information: Unless you have our permission in writing or as otherwise required by law, you must keep all of our confidential information secret and confidential. Our confidential information is anything that isn't available to the public, such as our internal documents and forms, records, suppliers, ideas, and the ways that we do business (such as our patient care model).
Ending our agreement:
Cancellation: If you would like to cancel or reschedule your session, you must provide us with at least 24hours notice before a scheduled appointment by sending us an email to renee@raintreechinesemedicine.com.au or by calling our clinic on (07 5240 9192). If you fail to provide us with at least 24 hours' notice, you will be subject to the following cancellation fees: Within 24 hours notice- You will be charged 100% of the appointment fee and your appointment will be forfeited.
If you are unable to attend in person, you may also request to change your appointment type to a Zoom session. Please note that due to the nature of our practice there are certain treatments that are only available in person. We may cancel or reschedule your appointment if one of our practitioners is unable to attend your session. If we have to do this, we'll provide you with as much notice as possible.
What happens when it ends? If this agreement is terminated, all rights and obligations accrued up to the date of termination are not impacted.
Refunds:
It's important that you understand there are two different types of refunds:
Australian Consumer Law (ACL) refunds and refunds which you may be entitled to under a policy that is set by a business. The ACL sets out certain rights that may entitle you to a refund. These rights apply to the quality of the services we provide and don't cover things like ending this agreement because of personal circumstances or a change of mind. We can't and don't intend to take away your rights under the ACL. This is different to our change of mind or 'internal' refund policy, which is not mandatory under the ACL, is subject to change on notice, and which may deal with refunds for change of mind or another reason.
Australian Consumer Law (ACL) If you're a consumer for the purposes of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), you may have certain rights to consumer guarantees. For services, these guarantees are as follows. The services: a) must be provided with acceptable care and skill or technical knowledge b) be fit for purpose or give the results we agreed to c) if we haven't agreed to a timeframe, services must be delivered within a reasonable time frame. If we provide a service that fails to meet these guarantees, the ACL says that we must provide a remedy (such as to provide the services again, provide a refund or pay for another service provider to provide the services again). If you believe you have a claim under the ACL, please contact us to discuss this further by emailing renee@raintreechinesemedicine.com.au
Our refund policy We don't offer refunds other than in accordance with the ACL for our services.
Intellectual property:
What is intellectual property? Intellectual property refers to ownership of things we can't necessarily see or touch (intangible property). Types of intellectual property include copyright, trade marks, designs, patents, and more. For our purposes, you can think of intellectual property as protecting the expression of ideas.
Expressions can include a) Creative works such as: artwork, graphics, icons, images, etc; b)Documents used during business, such as: brochures, confidential information, quotes, instructions, health info sheets, our social media templates, etc; c) Work we produce for you as part of our services, such as: a food chart, diet plan, exercise regime, or similar.
How we deal with our intellectual property: Ownership: We own or have the right to use all our intellectual property. We also have moral rights (right to be named as the author, right to the way the materials we produce look and are used) that we don't waive - so you must respect them.
This agreement does not transfer ownership in our intellectual property to you.
Licensing: During our work together, we may create for you or allow you to use materials as part of the services. For example, we may create a meal plan for you. We own this work, but in order to let you use it, we license it to you. This is like borrowing our intellectual property - you don't own it, but you can use for the purpose that it was created for, such as to decide what to eat to meet your health needs. Your license can be taken away (cancelled) if you breach this agreement. If you want to use our work for something else, such as to promote a business, you'll need to ask our permission and we may charge you an additional fee. If you want to do this, please discuss it with us by emailing renee@raintreechinesemedicine.com.au This may be subject to additional fees.
What does your licence look like? (a) You can only use our work for the intended personal use (e.g., to make healthier food decisions or to follow a recommended exercise regime). (b) You can't tell or imply to others that our work is owned by you. (c) You can't provide copies of our work to other businesses for their commercial gain; (d) Your license can be taken away from you if you don't comply with this agreement. If you're in breach, you'll be notified in writing. If you don't fix your breach of this license within 7 days your license will be cancelled, and you won't have the right to use the photos to any purpose. (e) While we're waiting for you to fix a breach, we may: i. stop work; ii. suspend your access to our intellectual property (such as by suspending your access to a photo gallery; and/or; iii. completely cancel your license until you fix the breach.
Sharing our intellectual property with others: This clause extends to protect all intellectual property rights in all materials we share with you, including our quotes or other materials. You must not share or re-use any of our materials for commercial purposes unless we say so in writing.
Indemnity: In addition to any other rights we have at law, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify us on a full indemnity basis for any breach of this clause including for any costs we incur in seeking legal advice on the breach and in taking legal proceedings against you.
Liability:
What is liability? Liability means being legally responsible for something going wrong. Being legally responsible usually means being responsible for making something right, like paying compensation, refunding money or fixing an issue. Liability under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL) Australian clients are entitled to guarantees under the ACL. We can't and won't change these. We specifically exclude all other guarantees that might apply to our services.
Liability for breach of contract: To the maximum extent applicable by law, we specifically exclude all liability for breach of contract. Other liability, including for negligence to the maximum extent applicable by law, we specifically exclude all other liability to you, including for negligence.
Liability for consequential losses: To the maximum extent permitted by law, we exclude all consequential losses, however arising.
Failure to disclose medical information:
To the maximum extent permissible by law, we won't be liable for negligence, consequential loss, or damage if you are injured as a result of a failure to disclose relevant health and medical information to us. Example: You fail to tell us about a disease that affects your health (such as liver disease) and we recommend a herbal supplement that is not suitable for people with compromised liver function. This impacts your condition negatively. We won't be responsible for negatively contributing to your liver decline because you didn't tell us about it.
Warranty and Indemnity:
What are we asking you to do? An indemnity is a promise to take on legal responsibility (liability) to pay or make something right in our place in certain circumstances as set out below. Breach of intellectual property clause In addition to any other rights we have at law, and to the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to indemnify us on a full indemnity basis for any breach of our intellectual property clause, including for any costs we incur in seeking legal advice on the breach and in taking legal action against you.
Consent Forms:
You warrant that you will complete our intake and consent forms truthfully and notify us if anything changes. You indemnify us in the event that you have given us a false warranty or failed to update us about changes in your personal circumstances that relate to your health
What happens if we disagree?
Dispute resolution If we disagree about something that relates to this agreement, we both agree not to go straight to court or a tribunal unless we need urgent relief, like an interlocutory order. We agree to follow the steps set out in this clause first. a) First, the party with the issue needs to tell the other person about the issue in writing so they understand what the problem is. This written notice needs to include the outcome that the person with the issue wants and the action they think the other person needs to take to settle the issue. b) Once the other person receives the notice of the issue, both parties agree to do their best to try and resolve the issue together within 30 business days. If a dispute is declared, any communications between us are confidential and should be treated as 'without prejudice' negotiations for the purpose of evidence law. This means that neither of us can use these communications if we go to court.
Mediation: a) If we can't resolve the issue on our own, we agree to select an independent mediator to help us work through the problem. We have up to 7 business days to select a mediator together. b) If we can't agree on a mediator, then we both agree to ask the President of the Law Society of Queensland to appoint a mediator for us. c) If we have to mediate, we agree to mediate virtually, and if that's not possible, to go to mediation in Brisbane and split the fees of equally between us. This clause will continue to apply even if this agreement is terminated.
General a) Time is of the essence in this agreement. No extension or variation of this agreement will operate as a waiver of this provision. b) We won't voluntarily assign or otherwise transfer our obligations under this agreement without your prior consent, however, we may sub-contract one or more aspects of the services, provided always that we will remain the head contractor and will be responsible for the delivery of services in accordance with this agreement. c) This agreement is the entire agreement and understanding between the parties on everything connected with the subject matter of this agreement, and supersedes any prior understanding, arrangement, representation, or agreements between the parties as to the subject matter contained in this agreement. d) If anything in this agreement is unenforceable, illegal, or void, it is severed, and the rest of the agreement remains in force. e) Any waiver by any party to a breach of this agreement will not be deemed to be a waiver of a subsequent breach of the same or of a different kind. f) Neither party will be liable to the other party for any loss caused by any failure to observe the terms and conditions of this agreement, where such failure is occasioned by causes beyond its reasonable control including, but not limited to, by fire, flood, riot, strike, war, pandemic, restrictions and prohibitions or any other actions by any government or semi government authorities, or major injury or illness of key personnel. g) The law of Queensland (QLD) governs this agreement, and the parties submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of QLD. h) Notices i. A notice or other communication to a party must be in writing and delivered to that party in one of the following ways: ii. delivered personally; or ili. sent by email to their email address, when it will be treated as received when it enters the recipient's information system. i) Interpretation i. If we refer to a piece of legislation, this includes changes or updates to it, and instruments and regulations introduced under it. ii. Words denoting the singular include the plural and vice versa, words denoting individuals or persons include bodies corporate and vice versa, references to documents or agreements also mean those documents or agreements as changed, novated or replaced, and words denoting one gender include all genders; ili.
Headings are just for convenience, not for interpretation. iv. Grammatical forms of defined words or phrases have corresponding meanings; v. Dates and times set out in this agreement are in reference to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; vi. If the day on or by which anything is to be done is a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday in the place in which it is to be done, then it must be done on the next Business Day; vii. References to a party are intended to bind their executors, administrators and permitted transferees; and vili. Obligations under this agreement affecting more than one party bind them jointly and each of them severally. j) Definitions i. Australian Consumer Law means Schedule 2 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth). ii. Business Day means a day on which banks are open for business in Brisbane, other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday.