Privacy Policy

Purpose of a privacy policy

The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our privacy policy tells you about the way in which we use, share and store your personal information.

Nick Lowe Acupuncture and Massage is the data controller and processor: info@nickloweacupuncture.co.uk

 

Whose information does this privacy notice apply to?

This privacy notice applies to information we collect from:

  • patients;
  • prospective patients;
  • former patients;
  • visitors to our website;

 

How do we process your personal data?

We comply with our obligations under the GDPR by:

  • keeping personal data up to date
  • by storing it securely
  • by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data
  • by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure
  • by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

 

We use your personal data for the purposes set out below. 

1. We use your name, address, telephone number and email address to make and rearrange appointments. 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.

3. Some patients and prospective patients tell us about their medical conditions and medication by email or online enquiry forms. 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.

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.

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.

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.

7. We use any relevant medical and family history you have told us forming a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

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 Council Code of Professional Conduct.

9. We use our clinical findings about your health and well being for making a full traditional diagnosis, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

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 and write case reports 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.

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.

12. We record any decisions made in conjunction with you to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment.

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.

14. In the event of a serious 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 to develop its safe practice guidelines providing research data and information for the BAcC’s insurers and other interested parties.

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.

16. In the event we receive a complaint from a person we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. 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.

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.

Your Clinical Notes and Health Data

When you book in for your first appointment, you will be invited to register with the Amplitude Clinical system, which we use to securely collect and store your personal data, health information and clinical notes.

As healthcare practitioners, we are required, as per GDPR and other international guidelines, to collect this information from our patients. The Amplitude Clinical system adheres to the highest standards in the world in regards to patient consent, as well as the data handling and processing. This helps bring a seal of trust to the process of collecting and storing your health data.

Our system allows us to securely monitor your progress and changes in your health throughout your course of treatments, with occasional remote assessments via email. This helps us make sure we are fully addressing your main health complaints and providing you with the best care possible. Only anonymous information collected about your care may be used for clinical audit purposes which allows us to assess and optimise the quality of care we provide. 

No directly identifiable data will ever be shared and you will never be identifiable to anyone except your healthcare practitioner and this clinic.

 

Appointment Bookings and Reminders

Your personal information, contact details and consent agreement to our policies is stored via a third-party online clinic management software system (acuity) server which adheres to stringent industry standards of data protection and is GDPR compliant. This system allows us to send you appointment booking confirmation and reminder emails/SMS messages. For more information about how Acuity processes data, please see: https://www.squarespace.com/privacy

At any time you may request that changes are made to your contact details.

Privacy Policy for Website Users

  • We use website cookies to improve user experience of our website by enabling member’ users, either for the duration of their visit – using a ‘session cookie’ – or for repeat visits – using a ‘persistent cookie’.
  • 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.
  • We use a third-party service (wordpress) to help maintain the security and performance of our website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to our website including publishing our blog. This site is hosted at Hostinger. We use a standard host 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.  For more information about how Hostinger processes data, please see: https://www.hostinger.co.uk/privacy-policy

 

Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential, and will only be shared:

  • with named third parties with your explicit consent;
  • with the relevant authority such as the police or a court, if necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject e.g. a court order;
  • with your doctor or the police if necessary to protect yours or another person’s life;
  • with the police or a local authority for the purpose of safeguarding a children or vulnerable adults; or
  • with our regulatory body, the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC), or my insurance company in the event of a complaint or insurance claim being brought against me; or
  • my solicitor in the event of any investigation or legal proceedings being brought against me.

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 minimum of 7 years in accordance with the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct https://www.acupuncture.org.uk/public-content/effective- practice/bacc-professional-codes.html

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.

  • The right to request a copy of your personal data which we hold about you.
  • The right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date.
  • The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for us to retain such data.
  • The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time. This right does not apply where we are processing information using a lawful purpose other than consent.
  • The right to request that we provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability), (where applicable) [This right only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with you and in either case the we are processing the data by automated means].
  • The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing.
  • The right to object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable) [This right only applies where processing is based on legitimate interests (or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics].
  • The right to be informed if your data is lost. We shall also inform the Information Commissioner’s Office in accordance with the time limits in the GDPR.
  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

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, queries of complaints please in the first instance contact us at

info@nickloweacupuncture.co.uk

 

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