Elizabeth (Liz) Wynn

Phone

07866 480792

Email

elizabeth.wynn@btconnect.com

Clinic Address

The Barn, Beck Farm

Beck Lane, Fulbeck

Grantham

Lincolnshire  NG32 3JF

Who are we?

Cool Therapies is the data controller located at Room 8, Manor Farm, Moor Lane, Aubourn, Lincoln, LN5 9DX. This means we decide how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.

Whose information does this privacy notice apply to?

This privacy notice applies to information we collect from:

• patients;
• prospective patients;
• former patients;
• visitors to our website;

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 which includes data concerning health and we may hold such data about you in 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.

• 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.

• We use your name, address, telephone number and email address, only if we have your explicit consent, to send you marketing materials. 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.

• Some patients and prospective patients tellus about their medical conditons and medication by email. 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.

• 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 comply with other legal obligations and requirements of our regulatory body, The British Acupuncture Council.

• We may use your date of birth to help identify patients with the same name to avoid mistakes being made, 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.

• 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.

• We use any relevant medical and family history you have told us for making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

• We use your GP’s name and address in the event that we need to contact your GP including in an emergency and because it is a mandatory requirement in the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct.

• We use our clinical findings about your health and wellbeing for making a full traditional diagnosis, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

• 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. 

• 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. 

• 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. 

• We keep accident records for any patients or visitors 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. 

• In the event of an adverse incident occurring to any of our patients we report the matter to the British Acupuncture Council and the our insurance company to enable the insurance company to deal with any potential claims and to help the British Acupuncture Council to develop its safe practice guidelines, as well as providing research data and information for the BAcC’s insurers and other interested parties. 

• 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.

• 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 British Acupuncture Council or our insurance company.

We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy.  This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure.  It will be retainied in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the 'need to know' principle.

Website

• We do not record any user data on our website.
• We do not use any third party tracking or advertising systems on our website.
• We use several products, such as Google Analytics, to analyse traffic to our website in order to understand our visitors' needs.  We only collect anonymous, aggregate statistics.
• Our website hosting provider will maintain and record website logs.  This information includes IP address, web page requested, date and time of page request and the web browser you are using.  This information is generally anonymous and cannot be used to identify an individual.
• If you fill in and use our contact form, we will hold your name, email address and any message text you enter.  We collect this data in order to communicate with you.  We will hold onto this information for a short period of time and for longer if you become a customer.
• A cookie allows us to analyse traffic patterns to our website. A cookie cannot give us access to your computer or to information beyond what you provide us. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies; consult your browser’s manual or online help if you want information on restricting or disabling the browser’s handling of cookies. If you disable cookies, you can still view the publicly available information on our website. If you are using a shared computer and you have cookies turned on, be sure to log off when you finish.

Sharing your personal data

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

• with named third parties with your explicit consent;
• with the relevant authority such as the police or a court, if necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject e.g. a court order;
• with your doctor or the police if necessary to protect yours or another person’s life;
• with the police or a local authority for the purpose of safeguarding a children or vulnerable adults; or
• with my regulatory body, the British Acupuncture Council, or my insurance company in the event of a complaint or insurance claim being brought against me; or
• my solicitor in the event of any investigation or legal proceedings being brought against me.

For further details about the situations when information about you might be shared please see the Information Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/personal-information/sharing-my-info/

How long do we keep your personal data?

• We keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary.

• We keep patient records for a period of 7 years in accordance with the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct.

• Your patient records are stored in hard copy in a locked filing cabinet.  Records are reviewed annually and should you not have attended the clinic for a period of seven years then your patient notes will be shredded and consequently destroyed.

• Periodically, on your attendance at the clinic you will be asked if there are any changes to your contact details so that your records are kept up to date.

• At any time you may request that changes are made to your contact details.

Your rights and your personal data

You are entitled to access the personal information that we hold on you. Please use the contact details below.  An administrative fee may be payable.

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 of complaints please in the first instance contact us at Cool Therapies, Room 8, Manor Farm, Moor Lane, Aubourn, Lincoln, LN5 9DX.

END OF PRIVACY NOTICE