Privacy Policy
At Greasby Dental Centre in providing your dental care and treatment, we will ask for information about you and your health. Occasionally, we may receive information from other providers who have been involved in providing your care. This privacy notice describes the type of personal information we hold, why we hold it and what we do with it.
About us
We are Greasby Dental Centre operating at 230 Greasby Road, Greasby CH49 2PW.
Mr S Wright and Mrs J Payne are responsible for keeping secure the information about you that we hold. Those at the practice who have access to your information include dentists and other dental professionals involved with your care and treatment, and the reception staff responsible for the management and administration of the practice.
Our data protection officer, Niki Lambson, ensures that the practice complies with data protection requirements to ensure that we collect, use, store and dispose of your information responsibly. You can contact our data protection officer, Niki Lambson, by email at [email protected] or by phone on 0151 678 0199.
Information that we hold
We can only keep and use information for specific reasons set out in the law. If we want to keep and use information about your health, we can only do so in particular circumstances. Below, we describe the information we hold and why, and the lawful basis for collecting and using it.
Contact details
We hold personal information about you including your name, date of birth, national insurance number, NHS number, address, telephone number and email address. This information allows us to fulfil our contract with you to provide appointments. We will also use the information to send you reminders and recall appointments as we have a legitimate interest to ensure your continuing care and to make you aware of our services.
Dental records
We hold information about your dental and general health, including
- Clinical records made by dentists and other dental professionals involved with your care and treatment
- X-rays, clinical photographs, digital scans of your mouth and teeth, and study models
- Medical and dental histories
- Treatment plans and consent
- Notes of conversations with you about your care
- Dates of your appointments
- Details of any complaints you have made and how these complaints were dealt with
- Correspondence with you and other health professionals or institutions.
We collect and use this information to allow us to fulfil our contract with you to discuss your treatment options and provide dental care that meets your needs. We also use this information for the legitimate interest of ensuring the quality of the treatment we provide.
Financial information
We hold information about the fees we have charged, the amounts you have paid and some payment details. This information forms part of our contractual obligation to you to provide dental care and allows us to meet legal financial requirements.
Where your dental care is provided under the terms of the NHS, we are required to complete statutory forms to allow payments to be processed. This is an NHS requirement.
How we use your information
To provide you with the dental care and treatment that you need, we require up-to-date and accurate information about you.
We will share your information with NHS England in connection with your dental treatment.
We may contact you to conduct patient surveys or to find out if you are happy with the treatment you received for quality control purposes.
We will seek your preference for how we contact you about your dental care. Our usual methods are telephone, email or letter.
We use Software of Excellence to post any correspondence to you please visit www.softwareofexcellence.com if you wish to see their privacy policy. Or if you wish to see a copy in practice we have a copy in our data protection file.
On occasion we may use your contact details to inform you of products and services available at our Practice. If you wish to opt out of this service please inform your dentist or reception.
Sharing information
Your information is normally used only by those working at the practice but there may be instances where we need to share it – for example, with:
- Your doctor
- The hospital or community dental services or other health professionals caring for you
- Specialist dental or medical services to which we may refer you
- NHS payment authorities
- The Department for Work and Pensions and its agencies, where you are claiming exemption or remission from NHS charges
- Dental laboratories
- Debt collection agencies
- Private dental schemes of which you are a member.
In certain circumstances or if required by law, we may need to disclose your information to a third party not connected with your health care, including HMRC or other law enforcement or government agencies.
Keeping your information safe
We use high-quality specialist dental software to record and use your personal information safely and effectively. We use Software of Excellence computer software. Our computer system has a secure audit trail and we back-up information daily with back-up tapes and with Cloud computing facilities. Back-up tapes are stored in a fire proof safe in a locked cupboard.
Our computer system is secured with AVG and Malware protection which is maintained by Riverside Digital Solutions.
We use cloud computing facilities for storing some of your information. The practice has a rigorous agreement with Riverside Digital Solutions to ensure that we meet the obligations described in this policy and that we keep your information securely.
Where we share or use your personal data we ensure that the companies below comply with the GDPR:
- Riverside Digital Solutions Limited partners with a third party company to carry out your offsite (Cloud) backups. Livedrive Internet Ltd
Files and folders are encrypted using AES 256 bit encryption prior to upload and are kept encrypted on their servers, with the encryption key being stored at Livedrive’s end of the system. This is built into the software, so it does not need to be enabled.
Both Riverside Digital Solutions and Livedrive are registered under the Data Protection Act and with the ICO.
- Restore Data Shred. We dispose of confidential paper waste by collection. This is stored is a locked store room until collected. For information on their privacy policy please visit www.restore.co.uk or ask for a copy which is stored in our data protection file.
Documents that we may collect are, for example medical histories, referral letters, treatment estimates, surveys. These are scanned onto you dental records and then disposed of in our confidential waste.
- NHS PR form are used to declare payment exemptions and consent to treatment. These need to be kept for 2 years then are disposed of in our confidential waste.
- Credit card receipts are kept for 18 months and then disposed of via our confidential waste company.
- FDS On-line Dental Referrals. Referrals are emailed via a secure on line referral company.
Please visit www.dentalreferrals.org/patients for their privacy policy or ask at reception to see a copy in our data protection file.
- Dental Laboratories. We have contacted all our laboratories and given them our GDPR processor agreements. They have all acknowledged receipt of these. If you require to see copies of these please ask at reception. Copies are kept in our data protection file.
- NHS Dental Services – BSA. Dental treatments are forwarded to the Business Services Authority to be checked and processed for payment to the dental practice. For details of their privacy policy please visit www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk or ask at reception for a copy of this.
We have a retention schedule listing all documents and the time frames for disposal. Retention periods may be changed from time to time based on business or legal and regulatory requirements.
NHS PR forms and credit card receipts are stored in a locked room until their disposal.
We keep your records for 10 years after the date of your last visit to the Practice or until you reach the age of 25 years, whichever is the longer. At your request, we will delete non-essential information (for example some contact details) before the end of this period.
Access to your information and other rights
You have a right to access the information that we hold about you and to receive a copy. We do not usually charge you for copies of your information; if we pass on a charge, we will explain the reasons.
You can also request us to
If we are relying on your consent to use your personal information for a particular purpose, you may withdraw your consent at any time and we will stop using your information for that purpose.
All requests should be made by email to our data protection officer or the practice manager at [email protected]
If you do not agree
If you do not wish us to use your personal information as described, you should discuss the matter with your dentist. If you object to the way that we collect and use your information, we may not be able to continue to provide your dental care.
If you have any concerns about how we use your information and you do not feel able to discuss it with your dentist or anyone at the practice, you should contact The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF (0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745).