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.
Mr Masud Choudhry 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.
Our data protection officer /practice manager Sarah Rafiq 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/ practice manager Sarah Rafiq by email at Sheffield.azuredental@nhs.net or by phone on 01142445278
– 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.
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.
We will share your information with the NHS 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.
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.
We have CCTV at the practice for the purposes of patient and staff safety. Please see our policy for CCTV for further details.
- 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.
Whenever you use a health or care service (A&E or community care services, for example), personal information is collected and stored on your patient record to ensure that you receive the best and most appropriate care and treatment. The information collected can also be used by and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for example, to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations by:
- Improving the quality and standards of care provided
- Research into the development of new treatments
- Preventing illness and diseases
- Monitoring safety
- Planning services
Information about your health and care is confidential and can only be used where allowed by law. Mostly, information used for research and planning is anonymised so that you cannot be identified; your confidentiality is maintained.
You can choose whether you want your confidential information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of your information, you do not need to do anything. If you wish to opt out, your confidential information will be used only to support your individual care.
You can register your choice and find out more at nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters – including
- What is meant by ‘confidential patient information’
- Examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
- The benefits of sharing data and who uses it
- How your data is protected
- Situations where opt-out will not apply
You can change your choice at any time.
Your information will not be shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes without your specific agreement.
We take precautions to ensure security of the practice premises, the practice filing systems and computers.
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 cloud computing facilities for storing some of your 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.
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 / practice manager Sarah Rafiq at sheffield.azuredental@nhs.net
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).
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