AI data leakage for general practitioners (GPs): what leaves when GP documents go into ChatGPT or Claude.

A general practitioner (GP) sees where a person’s whole health history meets their work, their family and their paperwork. Beyond the consultation note and the referral, a GP writes care plans, sick certificates, workers compensation certificates and replies to insurers and solicitors, and reads a daily stream of discharge summaries and patient messages. Under the Privacy Act health information is sensitive information, and a business that provides a health service and holds health information is covered whatever its turnover. Good medical practice asks doctors to keep information confidential and records secure, and in NSW the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 adds its own principles. This series takes ten of those documents, marks every item the obligations reach, and shows where each one goes when it is pasted into ChatGPT or Claude. Each page ends with the same document on Ermos, inside the practice. Referral letters, consultation notes and AI scribe transcripts are in our healthcare series.

The documents, one at a time

RecordThe chronic condition care plan

Diabetes, kidney function, a fall, a carer and a driving concern. A whole patient, summarised for a team.

See what leaves → FormThe workers compensation certificate

A back injury, a claim number, a capacity rating and a note about a supervisor. Written for an employer.

See what leaves → LetterThe medical certificate for an employer

Five days off, an employer’s demand for a diagnosis, and a miscarriage the patient told no one about.

See what leaves → Report or memoThe hospital discharge summary

A heart attack, a stent, five medication changes, a drinking history and a social work note.

See what leaves → EmailThe repeat prescription request

An opioid, an antipsychotic, a pharmacy, a brother collecting the script and a relapse.

See what leaves → NotesThe after-hours handover note

A palliative patient, a resuscitation order, a child protection report and a result still to come.

See what leaves → FormThe health assessment for an older person

A memory score, continence, falls, a carer under strain and a note about who handles the money.

See what leaves → SpreadsheetThe quality improvement spreadsheet

Every patient with diabetes, their results, who smokes and who has not been back. One row each.

See what leaves → NotesThe clinical meeting minutes

A blood thinner near miss, the patient’s name, a nurse’s performance and a GP’s health.

See what leaves → LetterThe solicitor’s request for records

A car accident claim, a signed authority and a record that holds far more than the claim needs.

See what leaves →

How the leakage happens

The mechanism is the same for every document. The whole text is transmitted to the provider’s servers. On personal plans the user cannot choose where it is stored or processed, and for the major providers that has generally meant outside Australia. On consumer tiers it can be retained and used to train future models. The provider’s staff and systems can reach it under the provider’s own policies. Once sent, the practice no longer controls it. Our on-premise vs cloud comparison sets out the four ways to run AI and where each one puts your documents.

The obligations in play

Each marked item on these pages links to the guide that covers its obligation:

The same documents on Ermos

Ermos Dominion drafts and searches on a unit in your office, so the documents never leave it. Ermos Edge keeps your documents on your own instance in an Australian data centre and sends only permitted excerpts, per question, to a named Australian provider. Every page in this series ends with both, item by item.

Common questions

Can general practitioners (GPs) use ChatGPT or Claude with patient information?
Not without meeting the practice's privacy duties, which still apply to every paste. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) recommends in its guidance on commercially available AI products that organisations do not enter personal information, and particularly sensitive information, into publicly available generative AI tools, because of the significant and complex privacy risks. Health information is sensitive information under the Privacy Act, and a business that provides a health service and holds health information is generally covered even if it is small. APP 6 limits using or disclosing it for another purpose unless the patient consents or an exception applies, and Ahpra says the practitioner remains responsible and must apply human judgment to any AI output.
Do ChatGPT and Claude train on what GPs and staff paste in?
It depends on the account each person is using. As at October 2026, whether a conversation on a personal plan (ChatGPT Free, Plus or Pro; Claude Free, Pro or Max) can be used to train the models depends on a setting each user controls. Business plans (ChatGPT Business and Enterprise, Claude Team and Enterprise) and the developer APIs sit under commercial terms, and OpenAI and Anthropic each say they do not train on that content by default (OpenAI, Anthropic). On either product, the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons can send a whole conversation back for training. For a GP practice the question matters because what staff paste is a certificate, a discharge summary or a patient's own message about their health.
Do business plans such as ChatGPT Business or Claude Team solve the problem for general practitioners (GPs)?
Only in part. A business plan changes the default on training, but it does not change who receives the content. On a personal plan the user cannot choose where conversations are stored or processed. Some business plans let an organisation choose to store data at rest in Australia (OpenAI), which still leaves the content with the AI company. The OAIC's guidance also tells organisations to review carefully the terms and settings that will apply to their use of any AI product. A workers compensation certificate or a solicitor's request would still arrive at that AI company in full, and Ahpra's guidance asks practitioners to know where patient data is located. Our comparisons with ChatGPT Enterprise and Claude weigh the trade-offs.
What is the safest way for a GP practice to use AI with patient documents?
Ermos is built so the document stays under your control. On the Dominion AI unit it is drafted inside your office and none of it is sent to an AI provider. On Ermos Edge your documents and index stay on your own instance in an Australian data centre, and only the question and the excerpts the user is permitted to see go to a named Australian provider that is contractually barred from keeping them or training any model on them. For a GP practice, staying in control means patient records stay where the practice can protect them, and a GP checks every draft that reaches the record or leaves the building.
What is AI data leakage for general practitioners (GPs)?
Patient information leaving the practice's control through an AI tool. When a care plan, a certificate or a discharge summary is pasted into ChatGPT or Claude it is transmitted to the provider's servers, can be retained on the provider's terms, can be used to train future models on consumer tiers, and can be reached by the provider's staff and systems. What leaks is a patient's health, often with their employer, family and legal matters.
Does the Privacy Act apply to a small GP practice?
Generally yes. Section 6D(4)(b) of the Privacy Act provides that a business which provides a health service to another individual and holds health information other than in an employee record is not a small business operator, so the turnover threshold does not take it outside the Act.
Which GP documents are most exposed when staff use AI tools?
The ones written for someone outside the practice: certificates for employers, reports for insurers and replies to solicitors. They are the documents most often pasted into a tool to be tidied, and each one carries more of the record than its reader needs.

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