Olivia Shaw Acupuncture Limited (“the Company”) is committed to safeguarding the privacy of its website visitors and patients (prospective, past and current). This policy sets out how the Company will treat your personal information and data.
Use of the website and online contact form
Any personal data submitted by you via the Company’s online contact form will be treated in the strictest of confidence. The Company will not sell your data or transfer it externally. The Company will use the data only in the course of providing further information to you, arranging appointments for you and in the course of treating you.
The Company will not use your data for any other purpose without your express permission, other than to the extent that it is required to do so by law, or in order to establish, exercise or defend its legal rights.
This website contains links to other websites. The Company is not responsible for the privacy policies or practices of third party websites.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used to make websites work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the operator of the site. Your web browser should allow you to delete any you choose. It also should allow you to prevent or limit their use.
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use this website and the Company uses the information to compile reports and to help improve the site. The cookies collect 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. This website uses Google Analytics to evaluate your use of this website, compile reports on activity, collect demographic data, analyse performance metrics, and collect and evaluate other information relating to our site and internet usage.
By continued use of our site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Processing of personal data
When you supply your personal details to the Company, they are stored and processed for four reasons (the terms in bold below are the relevant terms used in the Data Protection Act 2018, which includes the General Data Protection Regulations i.e. the law):
- We 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 a contract. You can, of course, refuse to provide the information, but if you were to do that we would not be able to provide treatment.
- We have a “Legitimate Interest” in collecting that information, because without it we couldn’t do our job effectively and safely.
- We also think that it is important that we can contact you in order to confirm your appointments with us or to update you on matters related to your medical care. This again constitutes “Legitimate Interest”, but this time it is your legitimate interest.
- Provided we have your consent, we may occasionally send you general health information in the form of articles, advice or newsletters. You may withdraw this consent at any time – just let us know by any convenient method.
Retention of records
We have a legal obligation to retain your records for 8 years after your most recent appointment (or age 25, if this is longer), but after this period you can ask us to delete your records if you wish. Otherwise, we will retain your records indefinitely in order that we can provide you with the best possible care should you need to see us at some future date.
Storage of records
Your records are stored on our office laptop. The laptop is password protected and patient files are stored on a discrete section of the laptop’s hard drive, which is also password-protected. The hard drive is backed up regularly on an detachable external hard drive. When not in use the laptop and external hard drive are kept in a safe with a digital entry pad secured with a code.
Sharing of data
The Company will never share your data with anyone who does not need access without your written consent. Only the following people/agencies will have routine access to your data:
- Your practitioner(s) in order that they can provide you with treatment
- Other administrative staff, such as our accountant, but they will not have access to your medical notes.
- Herbal Medicine Suppliers, but they will not have access to your medical notes, only information such as your name and herbal prescription.
- From time to time, we may have to employ consultants to perform tasks which might give them access to your personal data (but not your medical notes). We will ensure that they are fully aware that they must treat that information as confidential, and we will ensure that they sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Your rights
You have the right to see what personal data of yours we hold, and you can also ask us to correct any factual errors. Provided the legal minimum period has elapsed, you can also ask us to erase your records. We want you to be absolutely confident that we are treating your personal data responsibly, and that we are doing everything we can to make sure that the only people who can access that data have a genuine need to do so. Of course, if you feel that we are mishandling your personal data in some way, you have the right to complain. Complaints need to be sent to what is referred to the “Data Controller”. Here are the details you need for that:
Olivia Shaw
olivia@oliviashawacupuncture.co.uk
07914 852 435
United Kingdom