Privacy policy

DATA PROTECTION PRIVACY NOTICE FOR PATIENTS

In providing your medical care and treatment, we will ask for information about you and your health. Occasionally, we may receive information from other providers who have been involved in providing your care. This privacy notice describes the type of personal information we hold, why we hold it and what we do with it.

INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT

We may collect the following information about you:

• Personal details such as your name, date of birth, address, telephone number and email address
• Information about your general health, including:
• Clinical records made by us and other medical professionals involved with your care and treatment
• X-rays, clinical photographs, digital scans, and study models
• Medical histories
• Treatment plans and consent
• Notes of conversations with you about your care
• Dates of your appointments
• Details of any complaints you have made and how these complaints were dealt with
• Correspondence with other health professionals or institutions
• Details of the fees we have charged, the amounts you have paid and some payment details

Those at the practice who have access to your information include medical professionals involved with your care and treatment, and the reception staff responsible for the management and administration of the practice.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

To provide you with the medical care and treatment that you need, we require up-to-date and accurate information about you.

We will seek your preference for how we contact you about your medical care. Our usual methods are telephone, email, letter or text.

If we wish to use your information for dental research or dental education, we will discuss this with you and seek your consent. Depending on the purpose and if possible, we will anonymise your information. If this is not possible we will inform you and discuss your options.

SHARING INFORMATION

Your information is normally used only by those working at the practice but there may be instances where we need to share it – for example, with:

• Your GP or other health professionals caring for you
• Private medical schemes of which you are a member.
• We will only disclose your information on a need-to-know basis and will limit any information that we share to the minimum necessary.

In certain circumstances or if required by law, we may need to disclose your information to a third party not connected with your health care, including HMRC or other law enforcement or government agencies.

KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION SAFE

We store your personal information securely on our practice computer system. Your information cannot be accessed by those who do not work at the practice; only those working at the practice have access to your information. They understand their legal responsibility to maintain confidentiality and follow practice procedures to ensure this.

We take precautions to ensure security of the practice premises, the practice filing systems and computers.

We use high-quality specialist medical software to record and use your personal information safely and effectively. Our computer system has a secure audit trail and we back-up information routinely.  The practice has a rigorous agreement with our provider to ensure that we meet the obligations described in this policy and that we keep your information securely.

ACCESS TO YOUR INFORMATION AND OTHER RIGHTS

You have a right to access the information that we hold about you and to receive a copy. You should submit your request to the practice in writing or by email. We do not usually charge you for copies of your information; if we pass on a charge, we will explain the reasons.

You can also request us to:

• Correct any information that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete
• Erase information we hold although you should be aware that, for legal reasons, we may be unable to erase certain information (for example, information about your dental treatment)
• Stop using your information – for example, sending you reminders for appointments or information about our service
• Supply your information electronically to another dentist

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE

If you do not wish us to use your personal information as described, you should discuss the matter with your doctor. If you object to the way that we collect and use your information, we may not be able to continue to provide your medical care.

If you have any concerns about how we use your information and you do not feel able to discuss it with your doctor or anyone at the practice, you should contact The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF (0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745).

This Privacy Policy explains how we use any personal information we collect about you when you use this website. This policy may be updated from time to time.

PRINCIPLES OF OUR PRIVACY POLICY

• We will never spam you with irrelevant emails.
• You may opt out or in of our email communications at any time.
• You have the right to remove any information we hold on you.
• We will never sell, rent, make public or distribute your personal information.
• We will only collect and process your personal data when absolutely necessary.

RELEVANT PRIVACY LEGISLATION

In line with our internal processes and systems, this website is designed to comply with the following policies:

• UK Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA)
• EU Data Protection Directive 1995 (DPD)
• EU General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR)
• EU Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR)

The compliance of this website with the above policies will likely mean this website is compliant with data protection and privacy legislation around the world.

WHO ARE WE?

Website address: firsthealthmedical.co.uk
Company name: First Health Medical & Skin Care Centre
Registered office: 43 Stonecot Hill, Sutton SM3 9HH

WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU?

CONTACT FORMS

We collect the following information about you when you complete a form on our website:

• Full name
• Company name
• Email address
• Telephone number
• Other information you supply relevant to your enquiry

A copy is sent to us via email and this information is stored on our customer management system.

WEBSITE VISITOR TRACKING

Like most websites, our website uses Google Analytics. This tool collects information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. We use this information to better understand how visitors find us and how they interact with our website. We can use this to make adjustments to our website, to deliver a better user experience.

EMAIL NEWSLETTER

If you choose to join our mailing list, your email address will be stored in Mailchimp. Mailchimp is a third-party data processor. At any time, you can unsubscribe from our newsletters, either from within the newsletter or by emailing us.

HOW DO WE USE THE INFORMATION ABOUT YOU?

We collect information about you to respond to your query, understand your needs and provide you with a better service. Specifically, we use your information for:

• Replying to your initial contact
• Internal record keeping
• Improving our services
• Contacting you with marketing material relevant to your enquiry

You may opt-out at any stage from within an email received or by contacting us directly. A member of our team may contact you to respond to your enquiry.

We will not share your information with third parties. We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law to do so.

COOKIES

A cookie is a piece of code that allows the web server to identify and track activity of the web browser. They are widely used in order to make websites work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the website. You can enable or disable your cookie settings on our website at anytime via cookie settings. For further details please consult the help menu in your browser or visit allaboutcookies.org.

ACCESS TO YOUR INFORMATION AND CORRECTION

If you provide us with your personal information, you have the following rights:

• To review the user information that you have supplied to us.
• To request that we correct any errors, outdated information, or omissions in user information that you have supplied to us.
• To request that your user information not be used to contact you.
• To request that your user information be deleted from our records.

To exercise any of these rights, please email us. We will respond to your request to change, correct, or delete your information within a reasonable timeframe and notify you of the action we have taken.

SECURITY

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.