As a practitioner in acupuncture, I am subject to complying with the new GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) law 2018/679.

I, Lucie Holland Acupuncture am the data controller for my practice:

Lucie Holland Acupuncture,

Westcroft Leisure Centre

Westcroft Road

Carshalton

Surrey, SM5 2TG

This privacy notice applies to information I collect from:

  • patients;

  • prospective patients;

  • former patients;

The GDPR law sets a high standard for consent. This means that I must ensure that all my patients – former, current and prospective – have consented to me storing and processing personal information. I have a duty to ensure that there is lawful reason for me to request, store and process your personal data.

What is Personal Data?

Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified from that data. Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information in the data controller’s possession or likely to come into such possession. Examples of personal data I may hold about you include your contact and appointment details.

What is Special Category Data?

Special category data is a sub-category of personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation. Examples of special category data I may hold about you include your patient notes.

How your data is processed and the lawful reason for this is detailed below. In summary the two conditions that are satisfied are:

1) Compliance (e.g. I receive a court order telling you to disclose information about a patient to the police).

2) Necessary for the purpose of the legitimate interests pursued by me as the data controller. As a full member of the British Acupuncture Council (BAcC), I need to comply with the professional conduct code, which states what information needs to be recorded in order to give you a safe and effective treatment, and to store evidence in the event of a complaint or court case.

I use your personal data for the purposes set out below:

1.     I will ask for your name, address and contact details, telephone number and email address. This information will be used for me to contact you regarding appointments, provide information to you regarding your first appointment/what to expect from acupuncture.

I am unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails I send or receive may not be protected in transit. I will monitor any emails sent to me, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send is within the bounds of the law.

2.     I keep a permanent attendance register which records all appointments for patients attending my clinic. This is a legal requirement for tax purposes and to secure potential evidence in the event of a criminal prosecution, civil action, insurance claim or complaint to my regulatory body, the British Acupuncture Council.

3.     I may use your date of birth to help identify patients with the same name to avoid mistakes being made as to safe and appropriate treatment, for identification purposes if referring a patient to another health practitioner, and for identification purposes if writing to a registered medical practitioner so that they correctly identify the patient.

4.      I use your presenting complaint and symptoms reported by you for the purposes of making a full Traditional Chinese Medical (TCM) diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

5.     I will ask relevant medical and family history questions, which is necessary for diagnosis and to ensure that my treatment is suitable to your medical needs (for example, I may ask questions to ensure that certain treatment procedures are suitable for you). The information also ensures that I can conduct a full TCM diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

6.     I use your GP’s name and address in case I need to contact your GP, including in an emergency, and because it is a mandatory requirement in the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct. 

7.     I use my clinical findings about your health and wellbeing for making a full TCM diagnosis, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

8.     I keep a record of and refer to that record of any treatment given and details of progress of your case to enable me to review the full TCM diagnosis and treatment strategy.

9.     I record and use any information and advice that I have given, especially when referring patients to any other health professional, to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment.

10.  I record any decisions made in conjunction with you to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment.

11.  I record any naturopathic advice given within my notes and the reasons for the advice given.

12.  I keep accident records for any patients or visitors who are involved in accidents at my clinic in accordance with UK Health and Safety legislation including the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) to comply with the law and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint.

13.  In the event of an adverse incident occurring to any of my patients, I report the matter to the British Acupuncture Council and my insurance company to enable the insurance company to deal with any potential claims and to help the British Acupuncture Council to develop its safe practice guidelines, as well as providing research data and information for the BAcC’s insurers and other interested parties.

14.  Where relevant I maintain records of the patient’s consent to treatment, or the consent of their next-of-kin in order to be able to prove that the patient (and/or parent/guardian/next of kin) has given informed consent to treatment to secure evidence in the event of a civil claim, criminal prosecution, insurance claim or complaint.

15.  Please note any information that is sent over email is not encrypted and I cannot ensure the security of this information. I will also monitor any emails sent to me, including file attachments, for viruses or malicious software. Please be aware that you have a responsibility to ensure that any email you send me is within the bounds of the law.

16.  I keep patient notes to secure evidence in the event of a civil claim, criminal prosecution, insurance claim or complaint.

17.  I maintain records of the patient’s consent to treatment, or the consent of their next-of-kin in order to be able to prove that the patient (and/or parent/guardian/next of kin) has given informed consent to treatment.

18.  If I were to receive a complaint from a person, I would create a file containing the details of the complaint. This would contain the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in that complaint. I would only use the personal information collected to process the complaint and to check on the level of service I provide. I would have to disclose the complainant’s identity. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, I would try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis. I may need to provide personal information collected and processed in relation to complaints to the British Acupuncture Council or my insurance company. I would keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with my retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint would be retained for two years from closure. It would be retained in a secure environment and access to it would be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle. Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to me, I would only use the information supplied to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service I provide.

19.  Sharing your personal data. Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential, and will only be shared:

a.     with named third parties with your explicit consent;

b.     with the relevant authority such as the police or a court, if necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which I may be subject e.g. a court order;

c.     with your doctor or the police if necessary to protect yours or another person’s life;

d.     with the police or a local authority for the purpose of safeguarding children or vulnerable adults; or

e.     with my regulatory body, the British Acupuncture Council, or my insurance company in the event of a complaint or insurance claim being brought against me; or

f.      my solicitor in the event of any investigation or legal proceedings being brought against me.

20.  If I wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then I will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, I will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

How long is your personal data kept?

I keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary.

I keep patient records for a period of 7 years in accordance with the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct https://www.acupuncture.org.uk/public-content/effective-practice/bacc-professional-codes.html

After a 7-year period has elapsed since the last visit of a patient, notes will be destroyed. Should I be unable to carry out this procedure for reasons of poor health or death, the patient in question will be contacted for permission to either destroy their records or return them to the patient for their safe disposal.

At any time you may request that changes are made to your contact details.

Use of cookies and analytics on the Lucie Holland Acupuncture website

This website uses cookies to better the user’s experience while visiting the website

  1. Visitors are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computers hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors or use the cookie control system if available upon their first visit.

  2. A third party service, Google Analytics, collects standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. I do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site. This information is only processed in a way which does not identify anyone. I do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting my website.

  3. This website is hosted by Squarespace. Squarespace collects personal data when you visit this website, including:

Information about your browser, network and device

Web pages you visited prior to coming to this website

Your IP address

Squarespace needs the data to run this website, and to protect and improve its platform and services. Squarespace analyzes the data in a de-personalized form.

Bookings made online

Online bookings are managed on a software platform called 10 to 8. This enables you to manage your appointments and book automatically. If you wish to book an appointment online, you are consenting to their service privacy notice. Full privacy notice is available here . If you do not wish to book online, please complete the contact me form and I will respond to you within 24 hours.

Your rights and your personal data

Unless subject to an exemption under the GDPR, you have certain rights with respect to your personal data as set out below:

  • The right to request a copy of your personal data which I hold about you.

  • The right to request that I correct any personal data if it is found to be inaccurate or out of date.

  • The right to request your personal data is erased where it is no longer necessary for me to retain such data.

  • The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time. This right does not apply where I am processing information using a lawful purpose other than consent.

  • The right to request that I provide you with your personal data and where possible, to transmit that data directly to another data controller, (known as the right to data portability).

  • The right, where there is a dispute in relation to the accuracy or processing of your personal data, to request a restriction is placed on further processing.

  • The right to be informed if your data is lost. I shall also inform the Information Commissioner’s Office in accordance with the time limits in the GDPR.

  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

For further details about these rights please see the Information Commissioner’s website at: 

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/is-my-information-being-handled-correctly/

To exercise all relevant rights and queries, please, in the first instance, contact me at:

Lucie Holland Acupuncture

Westcroft Leisure Centre

Westcroft Road

Carshalton

Surrey, SM5 2TG

Mobile: 07766823356

Email: luciehollandacupuncture@gmail.com

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire. SK9 5AF.