PRIVACY POLICY
Louise Lipman, Acupuncture and TJQ
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 privacy notice came into effect and was first published on our website on 25 May 2018 and the latest update is 23 September 2020 with Section “Supporting NHS Test and Trace”
Who am I ?
Louise Lipman is the data controller. This means I decide how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.
Whose information does this privacy notice apply to?
This privacy notice applies to information I collect from: patients; prospective patients; former patients; visitors to our website; students; prospective students; former students
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 I may hold about you include your contact and appointment details.
Special category data is a sub-category of personal data. It includes data concerning health and this is included in your patient notes, and where necessary, in my Tai Ji Quan teaching diary.
How do I process your personal data?
I comply with my 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. I use your personal data for the purposes set out below.
The following section applies to my patients, prospective patients, former patients and visitors to our clinic along with Tai Ji Quan students, former students and prospective students
Patient notes are stored on Paper in locked filing cabinets, as are current diaries. Email addresses and phone numbers are not always stored, but where these have been used to contact you on specific matters, they will be stored electronically in my password protected devices which comprise a lap-top computer and a phone.
If I transport your data, it stays on my person until it is in its secure place – at home for archived notes and Tai Ji students and at the Magnolia centre for current patients.
Please note that I am unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails I send or receive may not be protected in transit. I monitor any emails sent to me, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send me is within the bounds of the law.
Paragraphs 1. to 12. apply to acupuncture patients, but do not apply to Tai Ji Quan students.
1 I may use your name, address, telephone number and email address to make and rearrange appointments. Receptionists at the The Magnolia Centre also have access to this data from the paper diary, in order to do the same.
2 In some cases where prospective patients are children, parents may return pre- 1st appointment questionnaires or tell us about their medical conditions and medication.
3 I keep a permanent attendance register (paper diary) which records all appointments for patients attending my 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.
4 I 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.
5 I use your presenting complaint and symptoms reported by you for the purposes of making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.
6 I use any relevant medical and family history you have told me for making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.
7 I use your GP’s name and address in the event that I need to contact your GP including in an emergency and because it is a mandatory requirement in the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct.
8 I use my clinical findings about your health and wellbeing for making a full traditional diagnosis, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.
9 I 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 me 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.
10 I record and use any information and advice that I 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.
11 I 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.
12 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.
13 Where relevant I 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.
14 This paragraph does not apply to acupuncture patients, and only applies to Tai Ji Quan students. I will only use your name, address, telephone number and email address, if I have your explicit consent, to send you ‘marketing materials’. By this, I mean information about classes and workshops that you may not necessarily already attend, or new classes that might be available to you. When I send emails to a group, all email addresses except my own, will BE Blind copies (Bcc). I will not send any marketing materials to patients.
15 I keep accident records for any patients, visitors or students who are involved in accidents at our clinic or in my classes 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.
16 In the event of an adverse incident occurring to any of my Tai Ji Quan students, I may report the matter to the insurance company to enable the insurance company to deal with any potential claims.
The following section applies to those who complain about my services
If I receive a complaint from a person I would 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.
I will only use the personal information I collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service I provide. I would 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, I will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis. I may need to provide personal information collected and processed in relation to complaints to the British Acupuncture Council or my insurance company.
I 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 me, I will only use the information supplied to me to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues.
The following section applies to users of my website
This website and its owners take a proactive approach to user privacy and ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect the privacy of its users throughout their visiting experience. This website complies to all UK national laws and requirements for user privacy.
This website uses cookies to better the users experience while visiting the website. Where applicable this website uses a cookie control system allowing the user on their first visit to the website to allow or disallow the use of cookies on their computer / device. This complies with recent legislation requirements for websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user’s computer / device.
Cookies are small files saved to the user’s computers hard drive that track, save and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its server to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website.
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. Restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of the website. Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire after a period of time.
This website contains a button to enable users to share blog posts and other content on social media site of the British Acupuncture Council Facebook. This site may set a cookie when you are also logged in to their service. I do not control the dissemination of these cookies and you should check the relevant third-party website for more information about these.
External links are clickable text links to other websites, although this website only looks to include quality, safe and relevant external links, users are advised adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links mentioned throughout this website.
I cannot guarantee or verify the contents of any such externally linked website despite my best efforts. Users should therefore note they click on external links at their own risk and I cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned.
This website uses tracking software to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computers hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. You can read Google’s privacy policy here for further information [http://www.google.com/privacy.html ].
I use a third party service, Ecological Hosting, to host our website including publishing our blog. This site is hosted at Ecological Hosting and the management and design of the website is carried out by Little Black Dog.
Sharing your personal data
Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential, and will 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 my regulatory body, the British Acupuncture Council, 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 I keep your personal data?
For Patients, I keep patient records and associated data 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-professional-codes.html
For Students, I keep data until you inform me that you will no longer be coming to classes, or for 2 years after you stop coming to classes, unless you tell me otherwise.
At the appropriate time, electronic data will be deleted from the device on which it is stored and data stored on paper will be destroyed by burning or shredding.
If your contact details change, please let me know so that I can amend my records accordingly.
At any time you may request that changes are made to your contact details.
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, 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)
The right to be informed if your data is lost. I 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 I wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then I 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, I will seek your prior consent to the new processing.
With respect to this, please see the following update 23 September, 2020.
Supporting NHS Test and Trace (23 September 2020)
Recording customer details: how we use your information
To support NHS Test and Trace (which is part of the Department for Health and Social Care) in England, we have been mandated by law to collect and keep a limited record for the purpose of contact tracing.
By maintaining records of staff, patients, visitors and students and sharing these with NHS Test and Trace where requested, we can help to identify people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus.
As a patient, visitor or student, you will be asked to provide some basic information and contact details. The following information will be collected:
- the names of all patient, visitor or student
- a contact phone number for each patient, visitor or student, or for the lead member of a group of people
- date of visit and arrival time and departure time
As the data controllers for the collection of your personal data, I will be responsible for compliance with data protection legislation for the period of time I hold the information. When that information is requested by the NHS Test and Trace service, the service would at this point 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 the venue/establishment, that it holds from loss, misuse, and unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration and destruction.
In addition, if you only interact with one member of staff during your visit, the name of the assigned staff member will be recorded alongside your information.
NHS Test and Trace have asked us 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. We will only share information with NHS Test and Trace if it is specifically requested by them.
For example, if another customer at the venue reported symptoms and subsequently tested positive, NHS Test and Trace can request the log of customer details for a particular time period (for example, this may be all customers who visited on a particular day or time-band, or over a 2-day period).
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, for students only, where you choose to give this information only for the purpose of contact tracing, it will be destroyed by us 21 days after the date of your visit.
However, the government guidance covers information that we would usually collect and hold onto as part of our ordinary dealings with you. Where this is the case, we will use it as we usually would, unless and until you tell us 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 to which we as a venue/establishment are subject to. The legal obligation to which we’re subject, means that we’re 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 corona virus.
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 we hold about you.
You have the right to request that we erase personal data about you that we hold (although this is not an absolute right).
You have the right to request that we restrict processing of personal data about you that we 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 a member of staff in the first instance to resolve your issue.
If you are still not satisfied, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office. Their website address is www.ico.org.uk.
Contact Details
To exercise all relevant rights, queries of complaints please in the first instance contact me at The Magnolia Therapy Centre, 354 Mansfield Road, Nottingham NG5 2EF
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.