KEEPING YOU RECORDS
The practice complies with the 1998 and 2018 Data Protection Acts and this policy describes our procedures for ensuring that information about patients is processed fairly and lawfully.
WHAT PERSONAL DATA DO WE HOLD?
In order to provide you with a high standard of dental care and attention, we need to hold personal information about you. This personal data comprises:
- Your past and current medical and dental condition; personal details such as your age, address, email, telephone number and your general medical practitioner.
- Radiographs, clinical photographs, and study models.
- Information about the treatment that we have provided or propose to provide and its costs.
- Notes of conversations/incidents that might occur for which a record needs to be kept.
- Records of consent to treatment.
- Any correspondence relating to you with other health care professionals, for example in the hospital or community services which referrals are done.
- Patient correspondence through emails/contacting us through the website
Name and email address will be taken for those signing up to our newsletter
WHY DO WE HOLD INFORMATION ABOUT YOU?
We need to keep comprehensive and accurate personal data about our patients in order to provide them with safe and appropriate dental care. For those signing up to our newsletter, this information is needed in order to send you updates about our service, dental care information and marketing communications.
HOW WE PROCESS THE DATA?
We will process personal data that we hold about you in the following way:
Retaining information
We will retain your dental records while you are a practice patient and after you cease to be a patient, for at least eleven years or for children until age 25, whichever is longer. Personal information from newsletter signups will be retained unless the user unsubscribes from our mailing list.
Security of information
Personal data about you is held in the practice’s computer system and/or in a manual filing system. The information is not accessible to the public and only authorised members of staff have access to it. Our computer systems have secure audit trails, and we back up information daily online. We use a third-party platform called Mailchimp to send newsletters. Their privacy policy can be found here: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/#3._Privacy_for_Contacts. We do not sell user information to third-party marketers.
Disclosure of information
In order to provide proper and safe dental care, we may need to disclose personal information about you to:
- The general medical practitioner
- The hospital or community dental services
- Other health professionals caring for you
- Private dental schemes of which you are a member
- Private dental administers who deal with present or future dental plans
Disclosure will take place on a ‘need-to-know’ basis, so that only those individuals and/or organisations who need to know in order to provide care to you will be given the information. Only that information that the recipient needs to know will be disclosed.
In very limited circumstances or when required by law or a court order, personal data may have to be disclosed to a third party not connected with your health care. In all other situations, disclosure that is not covered by this Code of Practice will only occur when we have your specific consent.
Where possible you will be informed of these requests for disclosure.
Patient data is stored for back-up purposes with our computer dental software suppliers. Our software supplier will also use data to send appointment reminders via text message. Patient data is held by our website hosting provider where patient contact is made via a form to make appointment enquiries or to contact us. Mailchimp will also have access to the full name and email address of those signing up to newsletters.
Access
You have the right of access to the data that we hold about you and to receive a copy. Access may be obtained by making a request in writing. There is no admin fee for records held on computer only but for those held part manually and part on the computer, there is an admin fee of £20. We will provide a copy of the record within 30 days of receipt of the request and fee (where payable) and an explanation of your record should you require it.
If you do not agree
If you do not wish personal data that we hold about you to be disclosed or used in the way that is described in this Code of Practice, please discuss the matter with your dentist. You have the right to object, but this may affect our ability to provide you with dental care.