Data Protection Privacy Notice for Patients
In providing your dental care and treatment, we will ask for information about you and your health. Occasionally, we may receive information from other providers who have been involved in providing your care. This notification sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. Please read the following carefully to understand our practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. For the purpose of data protection legislation, including the UK Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the UK Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), and other applicable legislation, Real Good Dental, is the controller and our contact details are: 25 Queen Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1JX
Information that we hold
We can only keep and use information for specific reasons set out in the law. If we want to keep and use information about your health, we can only do so in particular circumstances. Below, we describe the information we hold and why, and the lawful basis for collecting and using it.
Contact details
We hold personal information about you including your name, date of birth, address, telephone number, and email address. This information allows us to fulfil our contract with you to provide appointments and offer treatment. We will also use the information to send you reminders and recall appointments as we have a legitimate interest to ensure your continuing care and to make you aware of our services and offers.
Dental records
We hold information about your dental and general health, including:
Clinical records made by dentists and other dental professionals involved with your care and treatment
X-rays, clinical photographs, digital scans of your mouth and teeth, and study models
Medical and dental histories
Treatment plans and consent
Notes of conversations with you about your care
Dates of your appointments
Details of any complaints you have made and how these complaints were dealt with
Correspondence with you and other health professionals or institutions.
We collect and use this information to allow us to fulfil our contract with you to discuss your treatment options and provide dental care that meets your needs. We also use this information for the legitimate interest of ensuring the quality of the treatment we provide.
Financial information
We hold information about the fees we have charged, the amounts you have paid and some payment details. This information forms part of our contractual obligation to you to provide dental care and allows us to meet legal financial requirements.
How we use your information
To provide you with the dental care and treatment that you need, we require up-to-date and accurate information about you. We may contact you to conduct patient surveys or to find out if you are happy with the treatment you received for quality control purposes. We may also from time to time email you with material that may be of legitimate interest to you regarding the practice or your treatment.
Patient information for research or educational purposes:
If we wish to use your information for dental research or dental education, we will discuss this with you and seek your consent. Depending on the purpose and if possible, we will anonymise your information. If this is not possible, we will inform you and discuss your options.
Sharing information
Your information is normally used only by those working at the practice but there may be instances where we need to share it – for example, with:
Your doctor
The hospital or community dental services or other health professionals caring for you
Specialist dental or medical services to which we may refer you
Dental laboratories
Debt collection agencies
Private dental schemes of which you are a member.
We will only disclose your information on a need-to-know basis and will limit any information that we share to the minimum necessary. We will let you know in advance if we send your medical information to another medical provider and we will give you the details of that provider at that time. In certain circumstances or if required by law, we may need to disclose your information to a third party not connected with your health care, including HMRC or other law enforcement or government agencies.
Keeping your information safe
We store your personal information securely on our practice computer system [and/or] in a manual filing system. Your information cannot be accessed by those who do not work at the practice; only those working at the practice have access to your information. They understand their legal responsibility to maintain confidentiality and follow practice procedures to ensure this. We take precautions to ensure security of the practice premises, the practice filing systems and computers. We use high-quality specialist dental software to record and use your personal information safely and effectively. Our computer system has a secure audit trail and we back-up information routinely. We use cloud computing facilities for storing some of your information. The practice has a rigorous agreement with our provider to ensure that we meet the obligations described in this policy and that we keep your information securely. We keep your records for 10 years after the date of your last visit to the Practice or until you reach the age of 25 years, whichever is the longer. At your request, we will delete non-essential information (for example some contact details if requested to do so) before the end of this period.
Access to your information and other rights
You have a right to access the information that we hold about you and to receive a copy. We do not usually charge you for copies of your information; if we pass on a charge, we will explain the reasons. You can also request us to:
Correct any information that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete. If we have disclosed that information to a third party, we will let them know about the change.
Erase some of the information we hold. For legal reasons, we may be unable to erase certain information (for example, information about your dental treatment). However, we can, if you ask us to, delete some contact details and other non-clinical information.
Stop using information if you believe the information is inaccurate or you believe we are using your information illegally.
Supply your information electronically to another dentist.
If we are relying on your consent to use your personal information for a particular purpose, you may withdraw your consent at any time and we will stop using your information for that purpose. All requests should be made by email to our data Protection Officer The Privacy Worx at dpo@theprivacyworx.com You also have the right to complain about how we use your personal information to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Details about this are on their website at www.ico.org.uk or Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF (0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745).