West Auckland Dental Practice Data Protection Privacy Notice for Patients
In providing your dental care and treatment, we will ask for iformation about you and your health. Occasionally, we may receive information from other providers who have been involved in providing your care. This privacy notice describes the type of personal lnformation we hold. why we hold it and what we do with it.
About us
We are West Auckland dental Practice operating at 26 front Street West Auckland DL14 9HW
[Francesca Brown/Malcolm Ellis] are responsible for keeping secure the information about you that we hold. Those at the practice who have access to your Information include dentists and other dental professionals involved with your care and treatment and the reception staff responsible for the management and administration of the practice.
ADD if you provide NHS care :- Our data protceSn officer, Deborah Jones ensures we collect, Use, store and dispose Of your information responsibly. You can contact our data protection officer, by email at Deborah.jones32@nhs.net or by phone on 01388 833899
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 usng it.
Contact Details
We hold personal information about you including your name, date of birth, national insurance number, NHS number, address, telephone number and email address. This information allows us to fulfil our contact with you to provide appointments. 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.
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 quility of the treatment we provide.
Financial information
We hold information about the fees we have changed, the amounts you have paid and some payment details. This infomation forms parts of our contractual obligation to you to provide dental care and allows US to meet legal financial requirements.
ADD if you provide NHS care:- Where your dental care is provided under the terms of the NHS, we are required to complete statutory forms to allow payments to be processed. This is an NHS requirement.
How we use your information
To provide you with the dental care and treatment that you need, we rrequire up-to-date and accurate information about you.
We will share your information with [the NNS and/Simply Health f, Denplan] in connection witn your dental treatment.
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 will seek your preference for how we contact you about your dental CAre Our usual methods are telephone, email or letter.
ADD If you use 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 at possible. we will anonymise your information. lf this is not possible we will inform you and discuss your options
ADD if you are use patient Information for direct marketing (more than routine recalls) We may use your contact details to inform you of products and services available at our Practice.
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
- NHS payment authorities
- Tha Department for Work and Pensions and and its agencies, where you are claiming exemption or remission fromu NHS charges
- 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 we 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 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 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 filling systems and computers.
ADD IF YOU STORE INFORMATION ON A PRACTICE COMPUTER: We use high-quality specilist 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.
ADD IF YOU USE CLOUD COMPUTING FOR PROCESSING OR STORAGE. We use cloud computing facilities for storing some of your Information. The practice has a rigors 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) 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 an 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 your informaton - for example. sending you reminders for appointments or information about our service. Even if you have given us consent to send you marketing information. you may withdraw that consent at any time.
- Stop using informaton if you believe the information is inaccurate or you believe we are using your information illogally.
- 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 prtection officer Deborah Jones via email at Deboarh Jones32@nhs.net
If you do not wish us to use your personal information as described. you should discuss the Matter With your dentist. If you object to the way that we collect and use your information, we may not be able to continue to provide your dental care.
if you have any concerns about how we use your infonnaaon and you do not feel able to discuss it with your dentist or anyone at the practice. you should contact The Informaton Commissioners Office (ICO). Wycliffe House. Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF (0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745).
