Acupuncture clinic

The Purpose of this privacy notice

This privacy notice applies to information we collect from: patients, prospective patients, former patients, people who subscribe to our newsletters and visitors to our website.

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.

The Data Processor

To exercise your rights under Data Protection legislation please contact us by email. 

The data processor is Anna Bernard Acupuncture.  You can contact us at annalbernard@yahoo.co.uk

What is personal data

Personal data relates to a person 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. Examples of personal data we may hold about you include your contact and appointment details.

Special category data is a sub-category of personal data. Examples of special category data we may hold about you include your patient notes.

Processing your personal data

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

Patients, prospective patients and former patients.

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

We use your name, address, telephone number and email address, only if we have your explicit consent, to send you marketing materials. 

Some patients and prospective patients return pre-first appointment questionnaires or tell us about their medical conditions and medication by email or online enquiry forms. 

We keep a permanent attendance register which records all appointments for patients attending our clinic to keep a record of when they 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.

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.

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.

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

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 Code of Professional Conduct.

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

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 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.

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 and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint.

We 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.

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.

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.

Where relevant we maintain records of the patient’s consent to treatment.  This is so we are able to prove the patient has given informed consent to treatment.

Website Users

When someone visits our website we use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard 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 use website cookies to improve user experience of our website by enabling our website to 'remember' users, either for the duration of their visit - using a 'session cookie' - or for repeat visits - using a 'persistent cookie'.

We use a third-party service Go Daddy to help maintain the security and performance of our website. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to our website.

We use a third-party service, Go Daddy, to host our website. 

Sharing your personal data

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

l 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

l with your doctor or the police if necessary to protect your or another person’s life.

l with the police or a local authority for the purpose of safeguarding children or vulnerable adults.

l 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.

l 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.

The storage of your personal data

We keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary.

We keep patient records for a period of 7 years in accordance with the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct

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.

Ø The right to request a copy of your personal data which we hold about you.

Ø The right to request that we correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date.

Ø The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for us to retain such data.

Ø 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.

Ø 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, we are processing the data by automated means].

Ø 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.

Ø 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].

Ø 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.

Ø 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.

Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Policy, 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.