At Nottingham Osteopaths, we take the confidentiality and security of personal and clinical information extremely seriously. We follow General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and have explained below why we need to collect your personal data and what we do with it.

When you supply your personal details to this Practice they are stored and processed for three reasons:

1. We need to collect personal information about your health in order to offer you the best possible clinical advice and treatment. You are requesting clinical services from us and our agreement to provide that care constitutes a contract. You can, of course, refuse to give us this information but, if you were to do that, we would not be able to advise or treat you.
2. We have a “Legitimate Interest” in collecting this information because, without it, we could not do our job effectively and safely.
3. It is important that we can contact you to confirm your appointments with us or to update you on matters related to your clinical care. This again constitutes a “Legitimate Interest” but this time it is your legitimate interest (rather than ours).

We have a legal obligation to retain your records for eight years after your last appointment (or up to the age of 25 if this is longer). After this time you can ask us to destroy/delete your records, otherwise we will store your records indefinitely so that we can provide you with the best possible care should you need to see us again in the future.

Your records are stored on paper in locked filing cabinets in offices which are locked when not occupied and supervised by a member of staff when we are open. The Practice premises are always locked and alarmed out of working hours. We store certain personal or clinical information on a computer system and, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations, access to this information is password protected and the passwords are changed regularly. Our backup media are also stored in compliance with GDPR.

We will never share your data with anyone who does not need access to it without your written consent. Only the following people or agencies will have routine access to your data:

• Your practitioner(s) in order that they can provide you with treatment
• Our support staff because they organise practitioners’ diaries, coordinate appointments and reminders, and communicate with patients as part of the administration of the Practice. It is a condition of employment that support staff have access only to the minimum amount of information required to enable them to fulfil their roles in the Practice; they are bound by a strict code of confidentiality in their terms of employment.

Although unlikely, we may occasionally need to engage consultants to perform specific additional tasks which might give them access to your personal data (but not your clinical records). We will ensure that they are fully aware that they must treat that information as confidential and we will ensure that they sign a non-disclosure undertaking.

You have the right to see the personal data we hold about you and you can ask us to correct any factual errors if necessary. Provided the legal minimum time period has elapsed, you can also ask us to destroy/delete your records.

We want you to be absolutely confident that we are treating your personal data responsibly and that we do everything we can to make sure that the only people who can access that data have a genuine need to do so.

Of course, if you feel that we are mishandling your personal data in some way, you have the right to complain.

Complaints should be sent to the “Data Controller” who, for this Practice, is:

Nicholas Woodhead
4, Wellington Circus,
Nottingham,
NG1 5AL.
0115 948 4141

If you are not satisfied with our response then you have the right to raise the matter with the Information Commissioner’s Office.