Cotham Chiropractic Clinic Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Cotham Chiropractic Clinic

As patients of Cotham Chiropractic Clinic, we need to hold personal information about you. These records help us provide you with the best possible healthcare. The information that we hold about you includes:- your name, address, contact details, medical history, GP details, a record of your appointments and any contact that we’ve had with you, notes of your Chiropractic care and any relevant information from other healthcare professionals.

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 privacy notice aims to give you a summary of how Cotham Chiropractic Clinic collects and processes your data during and after your time as a patient.

Who are we?

The Data Controller for Cotham Chiropractic Clinic is Douglas Ingrams and he is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. His contact details are 3 Cotham Rd, Bristol BS6 6DG; 0117 946 6200; info@cothamchiropracticclinic.com.

Whose information does this privacy notice apply to?

This privacy notice applies to information we collect from:

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.

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.

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.

Sections 1 – 12 apply to our patients, prospective patients, former patients and visitors to our clinic. Practitioners and reception staff at the clinic have access to your data; everyone who works at the clinic has a legal obligation to keep your data confidential. Clinical notes are stored on paper in a locked filing cabinet. Appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent accidental loss. Contact numbers and communication with other health care professionals may be stored electronically on password protected devices.

  1. We use your name, address, telephone number and email address to make and rearrange appointments. We are unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit. We will also monitor any emails sent to us, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send us is within the bounds of the law.
  2. 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 General Chiropractic Council.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. We use any relevant medical and family history you have told us for making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.
  6. We use your GP’s name and address in the event that we need to contact your GP including in an emergency.
  7. We use our clinical findings about your health and wellbeing for making a full traditional diagnosis, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. Where relevant we 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.

    Section 13 applies to those who complain about services. Clinical notes are stored on paper in a locked filing cabinet. Contact numbers and communication with other health care professionals may be stored electronically on password protected devices.

  13. When we receive a complaint from a person we 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.
    We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We 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, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis. We may need to provide personal information collected and processed in relation to complaints to the General Chiropractic Council or our insurance company.
    Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.
    Section 14 applies to our website users.
  14. Our website does not use cookies to track users once they leave the site. The only cookies used are to monitor usage of the website and do not identify the user.
    Section 15 applies to job applicants, current and former employees.
  15. We are the data controller for the information job applicants provide during the process.
    • All of the information you provide during the process will only be used for the purpose of progressing your application, or to fulfil legal or regulatory requirements if necessary.
    • We will not share any of the information you provide during the recruitment process with any third parties. The information you provide will be held securely by us whether the information is in electronic or physical format.
    • We will use the contact details you provide to us to contact you to progress your application. We will use the other information you provide to assess your suitability for the role you have applied for.
    • We do not collect more information than we need to fulfil our stated purposes and will not retain it for longer than is necessary.
    • The information we ask for is used to assess your suitability for employment. You don’t have to provide what we ask for but it might affect your application if you don’t.
    • We ask you for your personal details including name and contact details. We will also ask you about your previous experience, education, referees and for answers to questions relevant to the role you have applied for.
  16. If we make a conditional offer of employment we will ask you for information so that we can carry out pre-employment checks. You must successfully complete pre-employment checks to progress to a final offer. We are required to confirm the identity of our staff, their right to work in the United Kingdom and seek assurance as to their trustworthiness, integrity and reliability.

    You will therefore be required to provide:

    • Proof of your identity – you will be asked to attend our clinic with original documents, we will take copies.
    • Proof of your qualifications – you will be asked to attend our clinic with original documents, we will take copies.
    • You will be asked to complete a criminal records declaration to declare any unspent convictions.
    • We will contact your referees, using the details you provide in your application, directly to obtain references.

    If we make a final offer, we will also ask you for the following:

    • Bank details – to process salary payments
    • Emergency contact details – so we know who to contact in case you have an emergency at work.

Sharing your personal data

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

For further details about the situations when information about you might be shared please see the Information Commissioner’s website.

In the event of serious illness or the death of your Chiropractor, appropriate arrangements have been made to insure that your data continues to be protected in the manner described in this policy. If we choose to sell, transfer or merge the business, the new owners may use your personal data in the same was as set out in this privacy policy.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We keep patient records for a minimum period of 8 years (or 8 years after a child’s 18th birthday) in accordance with the General Chiropractic Council Code of Conduct.

Please help us keep our data up to date by informing us of any changes to your personal or contact  can request that changes or corrections are made to your personal data at any time. All paper records and clinical notes are kept in a locked, fire-resistant filing cabinet. Any electronic data is stored on a password protected device. We have appropriate security measures to protect your data from accidental damage or loss and to prevent unauthorised access.

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.

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

Contact Details

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact Douglas Ingrams at Cotham Chiropractic Clinic, 3 Cotham Rd, Bristol BS6 6DG; 0117 946 6200; info@cothamchiropracticclinic.com.

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.