Data Protection Privacy Notice for Patients.

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 IQ ORTHODONTICS LIMITED operating at Unit 18 The Peacocks Centre, Woking, Surrey, England, GU21 6GB

The practice  is 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.

Data Controller
The data controller is IQ ORTHODONTICS LIMITED

We ensure 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 by email at info@iqbracesandfaces.co.uk

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.

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 may share your information with the NHS, The Care & Quality Commission and any private dental plan provider with whom you might have an agreement in connection with your dental treatment if requested by them.

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, text, email or letter.

If we wish to use your information for dental research or dental education, we will discuss this with you and seek your consent. Depending on the purpose and if possible, we will anonymise your information. If this is not possible we will inform you and discuss your options.

We may use your contact details to inform you of products and services available at our Practice.

CCTV
We have CCTV at the practice for the purposes of security only when the practice is unoccupied.

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.

We will only disclose your information on a need-to-know basis and will limit any information that we share to the minimum necessary. We will let you know in advance if we send your medical information to another medical provider and we will give you the details of that provider at that time.

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 store your personal information securely on our practice computer system and historical manual notes in a manual filing system. Your information cannot be accessed by those who do not work at the practice; only those working at the practice have access to your information. They understand their legal responsibility to maintain confidentiality and follow practice procedures to ensure this.

We take precautions to ensure security of the practice premises, the practice filing systems and computers.

Online
As we are committed to doing the right thing when it comes to how we collect, use and protect your personal data, we need to process your personal data, including your medical information to ensure we provide you with the highest standard of care .With this in mind we have developed this online privacy and cookies policy, which:

  • sets out the types of personal data that we collect
  • explains how and why we collect and use your personal data
  • explains the rights and choices you have when it comes to your personal data

Data collation
When you browse our website, register for our services or contact us we may collect:

  • Your personal details, including your postal and billing addresses, email addresses and phone numbers
  • Information about your online browsing behaviour on our website
  • Information about any devices you have used to access our services
  • Details of the emails and other digital communications we send to you that you open, including any links in them that you click on
  • Your feedback and contributions to customer surveys or reviews

Cookies and similar technologies
We use cookies to personalise and improve your user experience as you use our website and online appointment booking system. Cookies are small files which are stored on a user’s computer. They are designed to hold a modest amount of data specific to a particular visitor and website.

Cookies can be used for an individual visit or to measure how a user interacts with services and content over time.

We use cookies to help provide important features and functionality on our website and online appointment booking system to improve the user experience.

Cookies allow us to improve the way our website works so that we can personalise your experience and allow you to use many of their useful features. Cookies can help us to understand how our website is being used.

Cookies collect data that is generally aggregated and anonymous

How would we use cookies?
We may use cookies to help us publish online advertising relevant to you on our websites and other organisations’ websites and using social media. This means that you may see our adverts on our website and on other organisations’ websites. We may also combine data we collect through cookies in the browser of your desktop computer or other devices with other data that we have collected.

We also use Cookies to measure the effectiveness of our marketing communications, for example by telling us how many times you’ve viewed our adverts or opened our emails.

Your choices when it comes to cookies
You can use your browser settings to:
• Accept or reject new Cookies and to delete existing Cookies
• Notify you each time new Cookies are placed on your computer or other device
• If you choose to disable cookies you may not be able to make full use of the online appointment booking system

Practice Computers and Network
We use high-quality specialist dental software to record and use your personal information safely and effectively. Our computer system has a secure audit trail and we back-up information routinely.

We use a cloud computing facility, for storing some of our Dental Software information. The practice has a rigorous agreement with our provider to ensure that we meet the obligations described in this policy and that we keep your information securely

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:

  • Correct any information that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete. If we have disclosed that information to a third party, we will let them know about the change.
  • Erase some of the information we hold. For legal reasons, we may be unable to erase certain information (for example, information about your dental treatment). However, we can, if you ask us to, delete some contact details and other non-clinical information.
  • Stop using your information – for example, sending you reminders for appointments or information about our service. Even if you have given us consent to send you marketing information, you may withdraw that consent at any time.
  • Stop using information if you believe the information is inaccurate or you believe we are using your information illegally.
  • Supply your information electronically to another dentist.

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 at info@iqbracesandfaces.co.uk

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).