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Last updated 26 Apr 2021
Purpose of privacy notice
The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the GDPR). This legislation will replace current data privacy law, giving more rights to you as an individual and more obligations to organisations holding your personal data.
One of the rights is a right to be informed, which means we have to give you even more information than we do now about the way in which we use, share and store your personal information.
This means that we will be publishing a new privacy notice, so you can access this information, along with information about the increased rights you have in relation to the information we hold on you and the legal basis on which we are using it.
This new privacy notice comes into effect, and will be published on our website, on 25 May 2018.
Who are we?
Wallace Gilbraith is the data controller for Wallace Gilbraith: Traditional Acupuncture. The data controller decides how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.
Whose information does this privacy notice apply to?
This privacy notice applies to information we collect from:
What is personal data?
Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. Examples of personal data we may hold about you include your contact and appointment details.
Special category data is a sub-category of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation. Examples of special category data we may hold about you include your patient notes.
How do we process your personal data?
We comply with our obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure, and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data. We use your personal data for the purposes set out below.
Sections 1 – 15 apply to our patients, prospective patients, former patients and visitors to our clinic
1. We use your name, address, telephone number and email address to make and rearrange appointments. (Paper and electronic). We are unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit. We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send us is within the bounds of the law.
2. We use your name, address, telephone number and email address, only if we have your explicit consent, to send you marketing materials. (Paper and electronic). We are unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit. We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send us is within the bounds of the law.
3. Some patients and prospective patients return Initial Consultation questionnaires or tell us about their medical conditions and medication by email or online enquiry forms. (Paper or electronic). We are unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit. We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send us is within the bounds of the law.
4. We keep a permanent attendance register which records all appointments for patients attending our clinic to keep a record of when you were treated for tax purposes and to secure potential evidence in the event of a criminal prosecution, civil litigation, insurance claim or complaint to my regulatory body, the British Acupuncture Council. (Paper).
5. We may use your date of birth to help identify patients with the same name to avoid mistakes being made as to safe and appropriate treatment, for identification purposes if referring a patient to another health practitioner, and for identification purposes if writing to a registered medical practitioner so that they correctly identify the patient. (Paper).
6. We use your presenting complaint and symptoms reported by you for the purposes of making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning. (Paper).
7. We use any relevant medical and family history you have told us for making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning. (Paper).
8. We use your GP’s name and address in the event that we need to contact your GP including in an emergency and because it is a mandatory requirement in the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct. (Paper and electronic).
9. We use our clinical findings about your health and wellbeing for making a full traditional diagnosis, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning. (Paper).
10. We keep a record of and refer to that record of any treatment given and details of progress of your case, including reviews of treatment planning to enable us to: review the full traditional diagnosis, treatment strategy and planning; and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint. (Paper).
11. We record and use any information and advice that we have given, especially when referring patients to any other health professional, to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint. (Paper).
12. We record any decisions made in conjunction with you to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint. (Paper).
13. We keep accident records for any patients, visitors or staff who are involved in accidents at our clinic in accordance with UK Health and Safety legislation including the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) to comply with the law and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint. (Paper).
In the eventuality that I (the practitioner) get symptoms of Covid-19 within 48 hours of having close contact with you during the appointment and then later test positive, I am obliged under law to provide your name, phone number or email, and the date and time of your visit, to the Test and Trace service. Please note that by attending the appointment you give consent for this.
- Covid-19 addendum -
The following paragraphs, comprising the remainder of Section 13, have been provided by the British Acupuncture Council, and relate to data management during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is included in its entirety. The text as provided is for use in England, and will be update for Scotland when revised wording from BAcC is received. In the event of divergence, the spirit, if not the letter, of this advice will be followed meantime.
Recording your details and how your information is used
To support NHS Test and Trace (part of the Department for Health and Social Care) in England, I have been mandated by law to collect and keep a limited record of patients and visitors who come onto the premises, for the purpose of contact tracing. By doing this, and by sharing these records with NHS Test and Trace where requested, I can help to identify people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
As a patient/visitor of Wallace Gilbraith Traditional Acupuncture you will be asked to provide the following basic information:
As the data controller for the collection of your personal data, I will be responsible for compliance with data protection legislation for as long as I hold your information. When that information is requested by the NHS Test and Trace service, at that point they would be responsible for compliance with data protection legislation for that period of time.
The NHS Test and Trace service, as part of safeguarding your personal data, has in place technical, organisational and administrative security measures to protect your personal information that it receives from us/me, that it holds from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.
In addition, if you only interact with me during your visit, my name will be recorded alongside your information.
NHS Test and Trace have asked me to retain this information for 21 days from the date of your visit, to enable contact tracing to be carried out by NHS Test and Trace during that period. I will only share information with NHS Test and Trace if it is specifically requested by them.
For example, if another patient at the clinic reported symptoms and subsequently tested positive, NHS Test and Trace can request the log of patient/visitor details for a particular time period (for example, over a particular treatment slot, day, two-day period).
I will require you to prebook appointments for visits or to complete a form on arrival.
Under government guidance, the information I collect may include information which I would not ordinarily collect from you and which I therefore collect only for the purpose of contact tracing. Information of this type will not be used for other purposes, and NHS Test and Trace will not disclose this information to any third party unless required to do so by law (for example, as a result of receiving a court order). In addition, where the information is only collected for the purpose of contact tracing, it will be destroyed by me 21 days after the date of your visit.
However, the government guidance may also cover information that I would usually collect and hold onto as part of ordinary dealings with you (for example, your name, date of birth and phone number). Where this is the case, this information only will continue to be held after 21 days and I will use it as I usually would, unless and until you tell me not to.
Your information will always be stored and used in compliance with the relevant data protection legislation.
The use of your information is covered by the General Data Protection Regulations Article 6 (1) (c) – a legal obligation which this clinic is subject to. The legal obligation to which I am subject means that I am mandated by law by a set of new regulations from the government, to co-operate with the NHS Test and Trace service, in order to help maintain a safe operating environment and to help fight any local outbreak of coronavirus.
By law, you have a number of rights as a data subject, such as the right to be informed, the right to access information held about you and the right to rectification of any inaccurate data that I hold about you.
You have the right to request that I erase personal data about you that I hold (although this is not an absolute right).
You have the right to request that I restrict processing of personal data about you that I hold in certain circumstances.
You have the right to object to processing of personal data about you on grounds relating to your particular situation (also again this right is not absolute).
If you are unhappy or wish to complain about how your information is used, you should contact me in the first instance to resolve your issue.
- End of Covid-19 addendum -
14. In the event of an adverse incident occurring to any of our patients we report the matter to the British Acupuncture Council and our insurance company to enable the insurance company to deal with any potential claims and to help the British Acupuncture Council to develop its safe practice guidelines, as well as providing research data and information for the BAcC’s insurers and other interested parties. (Paper).
15. Where relevant we maintain records of the patient’s consent to treatment, or the consent of their next-of-kin in order to be able to prove that the patient (and/or parent/guardian/next of kin) has given informed consent to treatment to secure evidence in the event of a civil claim, criminal prosecution, insurance claim or complaint. (Paper).
Section 16 applies to those who complain about our services
16. When we receive a complaint from a person we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. (Paper and electronic). This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.
We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis. We may need to provide personal information collected and processed in relation to complaints to the British Acupuncture Council or our insurance company.
We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle. Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.
Sections 17 and 18 apply to subscribers to our newsletters
17. We maintain and use records of subscribers to our newsletters, only with their consent, for marketing purposes. (Electronic).
18. We use a third-party provider, Wordpress, to deliver our e-newsletters. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies including clear gifs to help us monitor and improve our e-newsletter. For information, please see Wordpress privacy notice.
Sections 19 – 23 apply to our website users
19. When someone visits our website we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.
20. We use website cookies to improve user experience of our website by enabling our website to 'remember' users, either for the duration of their visit - using a 'session cookie' - or for repeat visits - using a 'persistent cookie'.
21. Our website search is powered by Google. Search queries and results are logged anonymously to help us improve our website and search functionality. No user-specific data is collected by us or any third party.
22. We use a third-party service, Vidahost, to help maintain the security and performance of our website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to our website.
23. We use a third-party service, Vidahost, to host our website including publishing our blog. This site is hosted at www.acupotential.co.uk, which is run by Vidahost. We use a standard Vidahost service to collect anonymous information about users' activity on the site, for example the number of users viewing pages on the site, to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the site and help us improve it. Vidahost requires visitors that want to post a comment to enter a name and email address. For more information about how Vidahost processes data, please see Vidahost’s privacy notice.
Sharing your personal data
Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential, and will be shared:
For further details about the situations when information about you might be shared please see the Information Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/personal-information/sharing-my-info/
How long do we keep your personal data?
We keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary.
We keep patient records for a period of 7 years in accordance with the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct https://www.acupuncture.org.uk/public-content/effective-practice/bacc-professionalcodes.html
Personal data (mainly contact details, calendar appointments, electronic messages, financial records, and website logs) is kept in electronic databases and files including Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, Moneydance accounting software, stored locally on a password-protected personal computer, backed up to a local securely stored external hard drive, and synchronised to a password-protected encrypted mobile phone using password protected cloud synchronisation tools such as Deja Office Cloud Sync, Microsoft OneDrive, and RoundCube webmail. Contact details may also be stored in Google Contacts. Personal data (contact details, register of attendance, date of birth, GP name and address) and special category data (patient case note files) is kept in paper form in secure storage on the clinic premises or on the premises of the data controller
Your data will be updated (paper and electronic) timeously once the need for an update becomes known. You may, at any time, request that changes are made to your contact details.
Your data will be destroyed on request where such request does not conflict with other legal or professional or public interest requirements described above.
If I am ill I will refrain from practice, and rather than engage a locum practitioner, your data will remain in my possession to await my recovery.
In the event of my death your data will revert to my executors, who will manage it or dispose of it in accordance with this policy as provided for in my Will.
Your rights and your personal data
Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have certain rights with respect to your personal data as set out below.
For further details about these rights please see the Information Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/is-my-information-being-handled-correctly/
Further processing
If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.
Contact Details
To exercise all relevant rights, make queries or complaints, please in the first instance contact us at 20 David Douglas Avenue, Scone, Perth PH2 6QQ.
You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.
END OF PRIVACY NOTICE
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