Privacy Policy

The data controllers are Peter Kaslik and Madhu Kalakonda. The Information Governance Lead is Georgina Smith, who is also the Data Protection Officer.

This Privacy Notice is available on the practice website at www.worthing-dental.co.uk, at reception on request, by email if you contact grandavedental@btconnect.com or by calling 01903 503841.

You will be asked to provide personal information when joining the practice. The purpose of processing your personal data is to provide you with optimum dental health care and prevention.

The categories of data we process are:

• Personal data for the provision of dental health care
• Personal data for the purposes of providing treatment plans, recall appointments, reminders or estimates
• Personal data such as details of family members for the provision of health care to children or for emergency contact details
• Personal data for the purposes of employed and self-employed team members’ employment and engagement respectively
• Personal data for the purposes of direct mail, email, and text to inform you of important announcements or about new treatments or services
• Personal data – IP addresses so that we can understand our patients better and inform our marketing approach as well as improve for the website experience
• Special category data including health records for the purposes of the delivery of healthcare and meeting our legal obligations
• Special category data to meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010
• Special category data 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 never pass your personal details to a third party unless we have a contract for 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 the individual’s permission before the referral is made and the personal data is shared. Your data will be shared with the NHS in England if you are having NHS treatment.

• Personal data is stored in the EU whether in digital or hard copy format.
• Personal data is stored in the US in digital format when the data storage company is certified with the EU-US Privacy Shield.
• Personal data is obtained when a patient joins the practice and when a patient is referred to the practice.

For full details of where your data is stored, please ask to see Information Governance Procedures (M 217C).

Your name, address, gender, date of birth, NHS number, medical history, dental history, family medical history, family contact details, marital status, financial details for processing payment, your doctor’s details and details of treatment at the practice.

We may process more sensitive special category data including ethnicity, race, religion or sexual orientation so that we can meet our obligations under the Equality Act 2010, for example to modify treatment to suit your religion and to meet NHS obligations.

The retention period for special data in patient records is a minimum of 10 years and may be longer for complex records in order to meet our legal requirements. The retention period for staff records is 6 years. The retention period for other personal data is 2 years after it was last processed. Details of other retention periods are available in the Record Retention (M 215) procedure available from the practice.

We obtain your personal details when you enquire about our care and service, when you join the practice, when you subscribe to our newsletter or register online, when you complete a registration or medical history form and when another practitioner refers you for treatment at our practice. Occasionally, patients are referred to us from other official sources such as NHS clinics or hospitals.

You have the following personal data rights:

• The right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data
• The right to access – to have a free copy of your data that we have
• The right to rectification – to correct the data we have if it is inaccurate or incomplete
• The right to deletion of your personal data (clinical records must be retained for a certain time period)
• The right to restrict processing of your personal data
• The right to data portability – to have your data transferred to someone else
• The right to object to the processing of your personal data
• Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

Further details of these rights can be seen in our Information Governance Procedures (M 217C) or at the Information Commissioner’s website. Here are some practical examples of your rights:

• If you are a patient of the practice you have the right to withdraw consent for important notifications, newsletters, surveys or marketing. You can inform us to correct errors in your personal details or withdraw consent from communication methods such as telephone, email or text. You have the right to obtain a free copy of your patient records within one month.
• If you are not a patient of the practice you have the right to withdraw consent for processing personal data, to have a free copy of it within one month, to correct errors in it or ask us to delete it. You can also withdraw consent from communication methods such as telephone, email or text.

We have carried out a Privacy Impact Assessment (M 217S) and you can request a copy from the details below. The details of how we ensure security of personal data is in our Security Risk Assessment (M 217M) and Information Governance Procedures (M217 C).

Comments, suggestions and complaints

Please contact the IG Lead at the practice for a comment, suggestion or a complaint about your data processing at grandavedental@btconnect.com, 01903 503841, or by writing to or visiting the practice at 104 Grand Avenue, Worthing, West Sussex, BN11 5BH. We take complaints very seriously.

If you are unhappy with our response or if you need any advice you should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). Their telephone number is 0303 123 1113, you can also chat online with an advisor. The ICO can investigate your claim and take action against anyone who has misused personal data. You can also visit their website for information on how to make a data protection complaint.

Related practice procedures

You can also use these contact details to request copies of the following practice policies or procedures:

• Data Protection and Information Security Policy (M 233-DPT)
• Consent Policy (M 233-CNS)
• Privacy Impact Assessment (M 217S)
• Information Governance Procedures (M 217C)
• Record Retention (M 215)

If you have an enquiry or a request, please contact the Information Governance Lead:

Grand Avenue Dental Practice
104 Grand Avenue
Worthing
West Sussex
BN11 5BH

Email: grandavedental@btconnect.com
Phone: 01903 503841