This notice is to explain why I collect your personal data, and what I do with it, and to ensure I am working in accordance with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); terms from the regulation are indicated in bold.
When you supply your personal details to me, when we communicate by email, and when I take notes in the clinic, this information is stored and processed for four reasons in line with the GDPR requirements:
- I need to collect personal information about your health in order to provide you with the best possible treatment. Your requesting treatment and our agreement to provide that care constitutes in law an (unwritten) contract.
- I have a legitimate interest in collecting that information, because without it I couldn’t practice acupuncture effectively and safely.
- I keep records of your contact information because I think that it is important that I can contact you in order to confirm your appointments with me or to update you on matters related to your medical care. This again constitutes a legitimate interest, but this time it is your legitimate interest.
- Provided I have your consent (and this only needs to be verbal consent), I may occasionally send you individualised health information by email in the form of articles or advice. I will not send out generalised leaflets or advertisements. You may withdraw this consent at any time – just let me know by any convenient method.
I have a professional obligation to retain your records for 8 years after your most recent appointment (or after you have reached age 25, if this is longer), but after this period you can ask me to delete your records if you wish. Otherwise, I will retain your records indefinitely in order that I can provide you with the best possible care should you wish to see me at some future date.
Your clinical records will be stored on paper, in individual paper files, and in a secure cabinet in my home. They are not left overnight in other clinics where I practice from.
The following records may be also be stored electronically:
- Your name, telephone number and email address
- Clinical treatment records
- Email or text correspondence between us.
These are all stored on secure password protected applications.
I am the only person who has access to your records and electronic communications. I will never share your information with anyone who does not have a legal right of access without your written consent.
You have the right to see what personal data of yours I hold, and you can also ask me to correct any factual errors. I am legally required to respond to any request from a client to see their personal data within a timescale of 30 days. However, I would ensure that I responded as soon as I possibly could to any reasonable request for access to personal records.
I want you to be absolutely confident that I am treating your personal data responsibly, and that I will do everything I can to make sure that the only people who can access that data have a genuine need to do so. In the case of my practice this would most likely apply in the situation of me needing to make a referral to another health professional.
Of course, if you feel that I am mishandling your personal data in some way, you have the right to complain. Please first raise your concern with me, as I hope very much I will be able deal with any concerns you might have. However, you can also raise a concern directly with the Information Commissioner’s Office on https://ico.org.uk/concerns/
Cookie Policy
Highgateacupuncture.com uses cookies on this site. A cookie is a piece of text that is stored on your computer by your web browser. We use cookies to monitor how people use our site. This helps us to understand how our customers and potential customers use our websites so we can develop and improve their design, layout and more relevant content.
We use a number of different cookies on our site. If you do not know what cookies are, or how to control or delete them, then we recommend you visit http://www.aboutcookies.org for detailed guidance.
The list below describes the cookies we use on this site and what we use them for. Currently we operate an ‘implied consent’ policy which means that by using our website you agree we can place these types of cookies on your device. If you are not happy, then you should either not use this site, or you should delete the cookies having visited the site, or you should browse the site using your browser’s anonymous usage setting (called “Incognito” in Chrome, “In Private” for Internet Explorer, “Private Browsing” in Firefox and Safari etc.)
First party cookies
These are cookies that are set by this website directly.
You can find out more about Google’s position on privacy as regards its analytics service here. More info on Flashtalking and Google Analytics can be found here:
Third party cookies
These are cookies set on your machine by external websites whose services are used on this site. Cookies of this type are the sharing buttons across the site allow visitors to share content onto social networks.
Cookies are currently set by:
In order to implement these buttons, and connect them to the relevant social networks and external sites, there are scripts from domains outside of our website. You should be aware that these sites are likely to be collecting information about what you are doing all around the internet, including on this website. You should check the respective policies of each of these sites to see how exactly they use your information and to find out how to opt out, or delete, such information.
Blocking and deleting cookies
Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. For example:
Blocking or deleting all cookies will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.