Privacy Policy
General Practice
Data Protection Privacy Notice for Patients
In providing your physiotherapy treatment, we will ask for information about you and your health. Occasionally, we may receive information from other professionals who have been involved in providing your care. This privacy notice describes the type of personal information we hold, why we hold it and what we do with it.
About Us
We are The Arches Physiotherapy operating from Wistaria Court, 24a Avenue Road, Lymington, SO41 9GJ.
We are responsible for keeping secure the information about you that we hold. Those in The Arches Physiotherapy who have access to your information include physiotherapists and other clinicians involved with your care and treatment, along with our administration staff.
Our Data Protection Officer ensures that The Arches Physiotherapy complies with data protection requirements to ensure that we collect, use, store and dispose of your information responsibly. If you wish to contact our Data Protection Officer please do so in writing to: The Data Protection Officer, The Arches Physiotherapy, Wistaria Court, 24a Avenue Road, Lymington, SO41 9GJ.
Information That We Hold
We can only keep and use information for specific reasons set out in the EU General Data Protection Regulations. 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 details about you which may include your name, date of birth, address and telephone number(s). This information allows us to fulfil our contract with you to provide physiotherapy and other health related treatments. We will also use the information to contact you regarding your appointments or treatment as we have legitimate interest to ensure your continuing care and to make you aware of our services.
Health Records
We hold information which may include:
- Referrals and information received from your GP and other medical professionals
- X-rays reports
- Medical history
- Treatment notes, plans and consent
- Notes of conversations with you about your care
- Dates of your appointments
- Details of any complaints you have made and how they were dealt with
- Correspondence with 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 clinical care that meets your needs. We also use this information for the legitimate interest of ensuring the quality of the treatment that 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 clinical care and enables us to meet financial requirements.
How We Use Your Information
To provide you wi2th the clinical treatment that you need, we require up-to-date and accurate information about you.
We may ask you to take part in anonymous patient surveys to find out if you are happy with the treatment you have received, for quality control purposes.
We may use your contact details if we need to change or move an appointment or to respond to a query from you.
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 with your consent, with, for example:
- Your GP
- Other health professionals caring for you
- Your medical insurance company when applicable
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 plan to 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 in a manual filing system. Your information cannot be accessed by those who do not work for The Arches Physiotherapy. Only those working The Arches Physiotherapy 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 our premises, filing systems and computers.
We keep your records for 8 years after the date of your last visit to The Arches Physiotherapy or last visit by a The Arches Physiotherapy physiotherapist. 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 make a reasonable request 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. Repeated requests or unusually lengthy documentation, for example, may incur a charge.
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 although you should be aware that, for legal reasons, we may be unable to erase certain information (for example, information about your treatment). However, we can, if you ask us to, delete some contact details and other non-clinical information.
- Stop using your information if you believe the information is inaccurate or you believe that we are using your information illegally.
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 in writing to: The Data Protection Officer, The Arches Physiotherapy, Wistaria Court, 24a Avenue Road, Lymington, SO41 9GJ.
If You Do Not Agre
If you do not wish us to use your personal information as described, you should discuss the matter with your clinician. If you object to the way that we collect and use your information, we may not be able to continue to provide your clinical treatment at The Arches Physiotherapy.
If you have any concerns about how we use your information and you do not feel able to discuss it with us, you should contact The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. Tel: 0303 123 1113.