Apley Medical Limited provide medical and surgical consultations and treatments. We also provide advice and guidance to other health professionals.
A Privacy Notice is a statement by Apley Medical Limited to patients, service users, visitors, carers, the public and staff that describes how we collect, use, retain and disclose personal information which we hold as a consequence of the operation of our website, our newsletters and the provision of our products and services. It is sometimes also referred to as a Privacy Statement, Fair Processing Statement or Privacy Policy. This privacy notice is part of our commitment to ensure that we process your personal information/data fairly and lawfully.
This notice also explains what rights you have to control how we use your information.
You have the right to make a compliant at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), who is the supervisory authority for data protection issues in the UK (phone: 0303 123 1113 or at www.ico.org.uk/concerns).
Version 2.0 23/05/2018
We will need to update this Privacy Policy from time to time as the law and/or our business changes and develops. We will endeavour to tell you in advance by sending a service message to you if we hold your email address. Otherwise, please look out for the flags on our websites and materials that indicate we have changed this privacy notice. If you continue to use our websites and/or services after we have changed our privacy notice, we will take this as an indication that you accept the changes.
It is important that the personal data that we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity of the individual has been removed (anonymous data).
We may process personal information about you which will be used to support delivery of appropriate care and treatment. This is to support the provision of high quality care. These records may include but are not limited to:
We may also process sensitive personal data or special category personal data such as sexuality, race, your religion or beliefs, and whether you have a disability, allergies or health conditions. It is important for us to have a complete picture, as this information assists staff involved in your care to deliver and provide improved care, deliver appropriate treatment and care plans, to meet your needs.
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract that we have with you, and you fail to provide that data where requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with our services). In this circumstance we may have to cancel the provision of our services with you, but we will notify you if this is the case.
We use different methods to collect personal data from and about you including through:
We will only use your personal data when law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
It helps you because;
We will only use your personal data for the purposes set out above, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain our legal basis for doing so. Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
Information is retained in secure electronic and paper records and access is restricted to only those who need to know.
It is important that information is kept safe and secure, to protect your confidentiality. There are a number of ways in which your privacy is shielded; by removing your identifying information, using an independent review process, adhering to strict contractual conditions and ensuring strict sharing or processing agreements are in place.
Technology allows us to protect information in a number of ways, in the main by restricting access. The computers on which our information is stored are password protected and encrypted (AES256). Our guiding principle is that we are holding your information in the strictest confidence. We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and we will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
We can only keep your personal data for as long as necessary for the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. The precise length of time we hold your personal data for varies depending on the individual circumstances, but in determining the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. We follow the advice on retention periods as advised by the British Medical Association, which are based on the Department of Health (2006) Records Management: NHS Code of Practice.
https://www.bma.org.uk/advice/employment/ethics/confidentiality-and-health-records/retention-of-health-recordsWe regularly review our retention periods to ensure that we are not keeping your data for longer than necessary. Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us at info@apleymedical.co.uk.
To provide the best care possible, sometimes we will need to share information about you with others. We will share your information with your General Practitioner (GP), your health insurance provider and a range of Health and Social Care organisations and regulatory bodies as required. You may be contacted by any one of these organisations for a specific reason; they will have a duty to tell you why they have contacted you. Information sharing is governed by specific rules and law.
Our website contains links to other websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites, plug-ins and applications and this privacy policy only applies to this website so when you link to other websites you should read their own privacy policies.
Access: you may request access to your personal data, which enables you to receive a copy of the personal data that we hold about you and to check to see if we are processing it lawfully.
Transfer: you may request that we transfer your personal data to you or a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Please note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Rectification: you may request rectification of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
Erasure: you may request erasure of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Object: you may object to how we are processing your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
Restriction: you may request that we restrict how we process your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
Withdrawal of Consent: where we have relied on your consent to process your personal data you will have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any personal who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you by writing to us at the address below.
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. Our policy is to verify the authenticity of all requests made, and requests may be refused if we are unable to verify the identity of the requester.