Privacy 

When you book an appointment with Brightwell Clinic (“us”) attend an appointment or have any other dealings with us you will inevitably share some of your personal data with us: we take our responsibility to protect it very seriously. This policy sets out our privacy policies and the steps we’ve taken to keep your information safe.

• Data security
• Information we collect
• How we use your information
• Sharing your personal information
• Your right to access, correct and erase your data
• Data Breaches
• Complaints

Data security

In order to protect your information from loss, misuse or unauthorised access or disclosure, we make use of  physical, electronic and managerial procedures to secure and save the information you disclose and we collect. These steps include the following:

• only data that we need is stored
• we follow password and security  best practice concerning online accounts, website hosting, physical access, devices (PCs, laptops, mobile devices), and storage
• we use of reasonable endeavours to ensure third parties we deal with to perform our services to you are GDPR compliant
• we engage in staff training and accountability on data protection       

Information We Collect

When you contact us

If you contact us to enquire about our services or book an appointment we may collect the following information:

• Name
• Address
• Email address
• Telephone number

This information is collected on the phone, online and when you visit our clinic.

Our patients

As a podiatry practice we store:

• Confidential clinical notes as a record of your treatments, medication and advice you’ve received
• A record of your appointments
• Messages that we have received and sent to you
• Records of your transactions, including invoices and accounting data

We collect this data to be able properly to fulfil our contract to provide podiatry services to you.

While using our website

We may collect information about your browser or device for our website to operate correctly (e.g. to book an appointment). If you have agreed to analytics tracking we use Google Analytics to help us understand how our website is used, so that we can make improvements.

For a full list of cookies that we set, please see our Cookies policy.

How we use your information

For contact with you:

We will contact you regarding your enquiry, appointment(s) or to let you know if an item is ready for collection. We may also contact you if our privacy policy changes.

Our Patient records:

As a Podiatry practice, we must keep accurate  health records of any medical conditions, medicines prescribed by your doctor, treatments, and any advice you’ve received – this is classed as special category data.

Our records are only used to make sure that we are giving you the best care possible: only our Podiatrist has full access to your health data. Our receptionist and medical assistant may also collect  special category data and make notes during specialist treatments.  The owner of Brightwell Clinic, the Financial Controller our podiatrists and the receptionist and medical assistant are all trained to understand the importance of confidentiality and ensure that we only collect data that is absolutely necessary.

The principals involved in the retention of personal data are the Caldicott Principle which can be found by <clicking here>.

Marketing

We do not currently use any contact information for marketing purposes. We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties.

Sharing your personal information

Our patient records

As with many other clinics, we use Cliniko Practice Management software to store your contact information, patient records and transaction data. We have verified that these 3rd party services are GDPR compliant and use end-to-end encryption for security. To find out more about Cliniko’s security and privacy policies please visit https://www.cliniko.com/ 

Patient referrals

From time to time and where we feel it is in your best interests , we may refer you for private surgery or NHS services. To do this, we may share relevant medical information relating to your referral. We will not refer you to third parties without your consent.

Patient safeguarding

It is our legal responsibility as a medical practitioner to report any concerns that we may have for a patient’s safety (e.g. abuse) and wellbeing. In these cases, we may contact the relevant authorities for welfare checks.

Payments – Stripe Payment Gateway

When you make a payment on our website, we share some personal data with Stripe to allow the transaction to take place. See Stripe’s Privacy Policy for more information.

Financial transactions

We provide transaction data (e.g. copy invoices) to our accountant.

Your rights to access, correct and erase your data

Accessing your data

You have the right to know what personal data we hold about you and to make sure it’s correct and up to date. In order to receive such information, please send your written request, including your full contact details, by post to Susan Sandall at Brightwell Clinic, 1 Brightwell House, 40 Queens Road, Reading, RG1 4AU or by email to susan@brightwellclinic.co.uk.  You will be sent  reply within 30 days.

Correcting your data

If you would like to make a correction to the information we hold about you, please let us know in writing or when you next visit the clinic and we’ll put things right.

Erasing your data if you’re not a patient

If you have contacted the clinic and not become a patient, you have the right to request your data is erased. Please email us at susan@brightwellclinic.co.uk. We will comply, and notify you of success within 30 days. Unfortunately, we are not able to erase transactional data – this is a legal requirement.

Erasing a patient’s data

Unfortunately, we are unable to erase the data of patients who have been treated at the clinic – this is a requirement for a period of 8 years from the date of your last treatment at the clinic

Data Breaches

In the unlikely event of a data breach, Brightwell Clinic will promptly notify you of any unauthorised access to your personal information.

Complaints

Complaints about how we’ve handled your personal information can be made to  in writing to Susan Sandall Brightwell Clinic, 1 Brightwell House, 40 Queens Road, Reading RG1 4AU  or by email to susan@brightwellclinic.co.uk. If you are unhappy with our response, believe we are processing your personal information not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).