Data Protection

Patient Data Privacy Notice

Patient Data Privacy Policy

Team Member’s Data Privacy Notice

General Data Protection Regulation Policy & Procedures

This practice complies with the Data Protection Act (1998) and the regulations updated by GDPR on 25^th May 2018. This policy describes our procedure for ensuring that personal patient information is processed fairly and lawfully.

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, national insurance number/NHS number, address, telephone number and your general medical practitioner
• Radiographs, clinical photographs and study models
• Information about the treatment that we have provided or propose and its cost
• Notes of conversations or 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

We need to keep comprehensive and accurate personal data about our patients in order to provide you with safe and appropriate dental care. We also need to process personal data about you in order to provide care under NHS arrangements and to ensure the proper management and administration of the NHS.

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 the longer.

Personal data about you is held in the practice’s computer system and/or in a manual filing system. The information is only accessible to authorised team members. Our computer system has secure audit trails and we back up information routinely.

In order to provide proper and safe dental care we may need to disclose personal information about you to:

• Your general medical practitioner
• The hospital or community dental services
• Other health professionals caring for you
• NHS payment authorities
• The Inland Revenue
• The Benefits Agency, where you are claiming exemption or remission from NHS charges
• Private dental schemes of which you are a member

Disclosure will take place on a ‘need-to-know’ basis, so that only those individuals/organisations who need to know in order to provide care to you and for the proper administration of Government (whose personnel are covered by strict confidentiality rules) 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.

You have the right of access to the data that we hold about you and to receive a copy, or you may authorise a third party, such as your lawyer, to do so on your behalf. Parents may access their child’s records if this is in the child’s best interests and not contrary to a competent child’s wishes. Formal applications for access can be made in person or writing.

We will provide a copy of the record within 30 days of receipt of the request.

We will ask you to opt in to allow us to use your data for marketing purposes only. If you have not signed to consent for this you will not receive emails, text or letters to this effect.

You will still receive emails, test and letters to inform you of appointments, any changes to appointments, referrals, debt collection or any information relating to charges or dental plan charges.