Data Protection Policy
Woodlands Orthodontics aims to comply with current data protection legislation and relevant guidelines relating to obtaining, storing and using personal information about patients. A copy of our Data Protection policies and procedures may be obtained from our Practice Manager.
You will be asked to provide personal information when you contact the practice and when you come for an appointment, for the purpose of providing you with the very best orthodontic treatment. Categories and examples of the data we process are:
Personal data
- for the provision of orthodontic care
- for the purpose of providing treatment plans, recall appointments, reminders and estimates
- such as details of family members, for the provision of healthcare to children or for emergency contact
- for the engagement and employment of team members
Special category data
- including health records for the purpose of delivering healthcare and meeting our legal obligations
- to meet the requirements of equality and diversity legislation
- details of criminal record checks for employees and contracted team members
We minimise the data we keep and do not keep it for longer than necessary
We do not pass personal details to a third party unless we have a contract with them to process data on our behalf and will otherwise keep it confidential. If we intend to refer a patient to another practitioner or to secondary care such as a hospital, we will gain permission before the referral is made and the data is shared. Data on NHS patients will be shared with NHS England.
We process the data to:
- maintain contemporaneous clinical records
- provide orthodontic treatment, prevention and oral health advice
- carry out financial transactions with patients
- manage any NHS orthodontic treatment
- send data to the General Dental Council or other authority as required by law
- communicate with patients about appointments, treatment plans, estimates and treatment, and to provide information about the practice
- communicate with next of kin in case of emergency
- communicate with parents / carers of patients
- refer to dentists, doctors and other health professionals
- obtain criminal record disclosures for team members
- recover debt
- continually improve the care and service we provide
The personal data we process includes name(s), address, gender, date of birth, NHS number, medical history, dental history, family medical history, family contact details, marital status, financial details for processing payments, GP details, treatment details. We may process more sensitive special category data including ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation if required in order to meet our obligations under the Equality Act 2010, or to modify treatment to meet requirements of patients’ religious beliefs.
The retention period for special data in patient records is a minimum of 10 years and may be longer for complex records or to meet legal requirements. The retention period for staff records is six years; for other personal data it is two years after it was last processed. Further details are available in our Record Retention procedure.
We obtain your personal details when you enquire about our care and service, when you join the practice, when you complete a registration or medical history form and when another practitioner refers you to our practice for treatment. Patients are occasionally referred to us from other official sources such as NHS or private clinics or hospitals.
Personal data about you is held in our computer system and/or in a manual filing system. The information is not accessible to the public and only authorised members of staff have access to it. Our computer system has secure audit trails and data is backed up securely every day.
You have a right of access to the data that we hold about you and to receive a copy. Access may be obtained by making a request in writing and the payment of a fee. We will provide a copy of the record within 40 days of receipt of the request and fee (where payable) and an explanation of your record should you require it.
If you do not wish personal data that we hold about you to be disclosed or used in the way that is described in this Data Protection Policy, please discuss with your orthodontist. You have the right to object, but this may affect our ability to provide you with orthodontic care.
Privacy Notice for Children
Woodlands Orthodontics keeps records of your name, address, date of birth and details of any health problems, as well as details of your orthodontic treatment and details about your family. We hold this information in order to provide you with the best orthodontic care and will use it to send appointment reminders to you.
Your personal information is kept confidentially and securely.
We will only pass your personal information on to another dentist, doctor or hospital if you have a problem that needs their special skills and you need to go and see them. We will not give your information to anyone else unless the law allows us to, or we have to provide it for legal reasons.
If you leave the practice, we will stop using your information, but will keep it confidentially and securely until you are 25 years old, when we will review if and when we can delete it. You can always ask for a copy of the information we hold about you, we can transfer it to another dentist or doctor at your request and you can ask us to stop using your personal information to send letters to you or contact you in other ways if you are no longer a patient at the practice.
When you reach 18 years of age the Privacy Notice about how we process your personal information will change to the adult version.
If you would like a copy of the information we hold about you or if you have any other enquiries about it, such as to correct an error in your information or to provide a copy of your information to someone else, please ask our Practice Manager.
Fiona Millen
Dr Fiona Millen BDS (Brist), MSc (Lond), FDSRCS (Eng), MOrthRCS (Eng)
Practice Principal, Woodlands Orthodontics
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