Privacy Policy
Sarah San Acupuncture
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This privacy notice tells you what to expect us to do with your personal information when you make contact with us or use our services. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the GDPR).
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Who are we?
Sarah San is the data controller (admin@SarahSanAcupuncture.co.uk). This means we 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 we collect from patients, prospective patients, former patients and visitors to our website.
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 we may hold about you include your contact and appointment details.
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Special category data is a sub-category of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation. Examples of special category data we may hold about you include your patient notes.
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How do we process 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.
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1. We use your name, address, telephone number and email address to make and rearrange appointments.
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2. We use your name, address, telephone number and email address, only if we have your explicit consent, to send you marketing materials.
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3. 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.
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4. We keep a permanent attendance register which records all appointments for patients attending our 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.
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5. 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.
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6. We use your presenting complaint, symptoms, any relevant medical and family history reported by you for the purposes of making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.
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7. We keep a record of, and refer to that record, 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.
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8. 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.
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9. We keep accident records for any patients or visitors 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.
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10. We use a third-party service Wix, to host and help maintain the security and performance of our website. We use Wix to collect anonymous information about users' activity on the site, for example the number of users viewing pages on the site, to monitor and report on the effectiveness of the site and help us improve it. To deliver this service it processes the IP addresses of visitors to our website.
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Sharing your personal data
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We will not share your information with any third parties for the purposes of direct marketing.
We use data processors who are third parties who provide elements of services for us. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct. When it is necessary for us to transfer your personal information outside of the UK this will only be done in accordance with the UK GDPR.
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In some circumstances we are legally obliged to share information, 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 child or vulnerable adult.
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How long do we keep your personal data?
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.
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Contact Details
To exercise all relevant rights, queries of complaints please in the first instance contact us at admin@SarahSanAcupuncture.co.uk. You can also contact the Information Commissioners Office directly at https://ico.org.uk.