4 November 2026

What has happened

Epichealth operates four medical clinics including the Warrnambool Medicare Urgent Care Clinic,  Epichealth Ocean Grove Marketplace, Epichealth Ocean Plaza, and Epichealth Portarlington. 

Epichealth recently experienced a cyber incident, during which an unauthorised third party accessed a part of our IT systems. 

As soon we became aware of the unauthorised access, we immediately engaged independent cyber experts to provide advice. These experts were able to quickly contain the incident and safely restore access to our systems, with limited impact to operations. Since then, we have been working urgently to investigate what data has been impacted.

Our clinics remain open and we continue to provide high-quality clinical care. 

While we had robust cyber security systems in place prior to the event, we are committed to working with our experts to further strengthen our cyber defences. 

We sincerely apologise that this incident occurred and understand that this may be concerning. We are taking this matter very seriously and are committed to supporting you throughout this process.

Information that may be affected

This incident has affected personal information that you have provided to us, or which was collected while providing you with healthcare services.

Based on our investigations, this may include your:

  • basic personal and contact details (name, date of birth, email address, phone number and/or address);
  • Medicare card number;
  • Centrelink customer reference number (CRN)
  • Veteran card (DVA) number; and
  • health information.

Epichealth has reported the incident to the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Steps you can take to protect your personal information

Type of personal informationRecommendation
Basic personal and contact detailsWhile access to this information is unlikely to result in serious harm to you, it can potentially lead to increased scam or phishing attempts. 

In line with expert guidance, we provide the following steps that you may consider taking to mitigate cyber risks and online scams:

  • remain alert to any suspicious email, SMS or telephone communications that are disguised to look like they come from someone you know or trust;
  • monitor your bank statements closely for unusual transactions and advise your bank if you identify anything suspicious; 
  • verify communications by confirming the identity of the sender and avoiding clicking suspicious links. This includes checking email names and domains, by hovering your mouse over the sender’s email address. If you are unsure, ask someone you know to check before you share any information; and
  • be alert to phishing scams. Phishing scams are attempts by scammers to trick people into providing their personal information, including passwords or credit card numbers often by creating a sense of urgency. These scams could target you through post, phone or email.

Further information is available:

Medicare card number or CRNAs a medical practice, we may hold a copy of your current Medicare card number and relevant concession card number.

Guidance provided by Services Australia is that your accounts cannot be accessed with your card numbers alone. 

Further, unlike a scanned copy of a Medicare or concession card, a Medicare or concession card number by itself cannot be used as proof of identity or used with the government’s Document Verification Service. 

We recommend that you visit: www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/databreach for further information on how you can protect your personal information following a data breach.

Veteran card (DVA) numberWe understand that a DVA file number alone cannot be used to access your personal information or be used as a proof of identity. 

If you would like further information, we recommend contacting the DVA on 1800 VETERAN (1800 838 372) between 8am and 5pm AEST, Monday to Friday.

Health informationWhile we understand that receiving a notification that some of your health information is involved in a cyber event may cause concern, we have been advised that there is a low risk that this information will be misused. Cyber-criminals typically seek out information that can be easily manipulated for financial gain (such as active credit cards).

If you have any concerns, we encourage you to contact your GP or our dedicated team at [email protected]

Next steps

If you have any questions about the event, or if you require further support, please email [email protected]. We will endeavour to respond to these queries as soon as possible.

We understand the importance people place on the security of their personal information, so it is something we take very seriously. We sincerely apologise for any concern and inconvenience this has caused you, and we will do everything we can to support our patients as we work through this incident.

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