PRIVACY POLICY
This notice is to explain why I, Trish O' Hara at The Acupuncture Loft collect your personal data, and what I do with it, and to ensure I am working in accordance with the new 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:
1. 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.
2. I have a legitimate interest in collecting that information, because without it I couldn’t practice acupuncture effectively and safely.
3. 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.
4. 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 legal 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 are stored only on paper, in individual paper files, and in a secure cabinet in my home. They are not left overnight in the clinic.
Your emails are stored in an online file within my Gmail email program which is password protected. This program has a very good track record in terms of security, and thus carries a low risk of being vulnerable to a security breach.
I also keep a file on my password protected computer at home which stores the invoices which I send out to those people who pay by bank transfer. These invoices mostly record dates of acupuncture appointments and names of clients. Some record addresses of clients only if requested by the client for the purposes of claiming clinic fees on insurance. These documents are not seen by accountants and are purely for personal financial record keeping.
I am the only person who has access to your records, invoice files and emails. 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.
In the event that anything should happen to me which would render me unable to oversee your records, then, and only in this event, I have entrusted the handling of my clinical records to R Humphris , who is also an acupuncturist.
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/