Privacy Notice

•  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 

• 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 that 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 if you are having NHS treatment. 

• Personal data is stored in the UK or EU whether in digital or hard copy format
  
  

• Personal data is obtained when a patient joins the practice, when a patient is referred to the practice and when a patient subscribes to an email list 
   

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

Our Article 9 conditions for processing special category data: 

• Processing is necessary for health care purposes 

• Processing necessary for identifying or keeping under review the existence or absence of equality of opportunity or treatment between groups of people with the view to enabling such equality to be promoted or maintained  
• We obtain consent of the data subject to process criminal record checks 

 The reasons we process the data include: 

• To maintain your contemporaneous clinical records 

The personal data we process includes: 

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, or 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 11 years and may be longer for complex records or to meet our legal requirements. The retention period for other personal data is 2 years after it was last processed. Details of 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 of access – to have a copy of the data we hold about you. Generally, we will not charge for this service 
  
• 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 to 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 in Sensitive Information Map, PIA and Risk Assessment (M 217Q) 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 (M 217C).  

Comments, suggestions and complaints 
Please contact the IG Lead at the practice for a comment, suggestion or a complaint about your data processing at [ info@belmontdentalpractice.co.uk ], or [ 0191 384 9491 ] or by writing to or visiting the practice at [ Newlands Road, Belmont, Durham, DH1 1AP ]. We take complaints very seriously.  

• Data Protection and Information Security Policy (M 233-DPT), Consent Policy (M 233-CNS) 
  
• Sensitive Information Map, PIA and Risk Assessment (M 217Q), Information Governance Procedures (M 217C), Record Retention (M 215) 

 
If you have an enquiry or a request, please contact the Information Governance Lead: [ Charlotte Constantine ] 
[ Belmont Dental Practice ], 
PRACTICE_ADDRESS</span><span>, 
Email: [ info@belmontdentalpractice.co.uk ], 
Phone: [ 0191 384 9491 ]. 

Thank you. 

• Improving the quality and standards of care provided 
  
• Research into the development of new treatments  
  
• Preventing illness and diseases 
  
• Monitoring safety 
  
• Planning services 

 
This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law.  

Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed. 

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care. To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters. On this web page you will: 

• See what is meant by confidential patient information 
  
• Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care 
  
• Find out more about the benefits of sharing data 
  
• Understand more about who uses the data 
  
• Find out how your data is protected 
  
• Be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting 
  
• Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone  
  
• See the situations where the opt-out will not apply
   

You can also find out more about how patient information is used at: 
https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/ (which covers health and care research); and 
https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made) 

So that we can provide a safe and professional service, we need to keep certain records about our team members. We may record the following types of data: 

• Your basic details and contact information e.g. your name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and next of kin 
  
• Your financial details e.g. details so that we can pay you, insurance, pension and tax details 
  
• Your training records 

 
We also record the following data which is classified as “special category”: 

• Health and social care data about you, which might include both your physical and mental health data – we will only collect this if it is necessary for us to know as your employer, e.g. fit notes or in order for you to claim statutory maternity/paternity pay 
  
• We may also, with your permission, record data about your race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or religion 

 
As part of your engagement with the practice, you may be required to undergo a Criminal Record Check. This information is not kept for longer than is necessary—usually not more than 6 months following the recruitment decision, unless a dispute is raised or, in exceptional circumstances.  

Why do we have this data?  
We require this data so that we can contact you, pay you and make sure you receive the training and support you need to perform your job. By law, we need to have a lawful basis for processing your personal data.  

We process your data because: 

• We have a legal obligation under UK employment law 
  
• We have a legitimate interest in processing your data – for example, for administration of training or learning course or emergency planning etc. These legitimate interests will be customary, or necessary for operational, administrative, HR and recruitment purposes and to otherwise manage employment relationship and interaction between employees 
  
• We are required to provide data to our regulator, [CQC/NHS/RQIA/HIS/HIW], as part of our public interest obligations 
  
• We are required to do so in our performance of another public task 
  
• We process your special category data because It is necessary for us to process requests for sick pay or maternity pay 
  
• If we request your criminal records data it is because we have a legal obligation to do this due to the type of work you do. This is set out in the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 
  
• We may also process your data with your consent. If we need to ask for your permission, we will offer you a clear choice and ask that you confirm to us that you consent. We will also explain clearly to you what we need the data for and how you can withdraw your consent   

•  You or your legal representative(s) 
  
• Third parties – for example this could include references from your previous job 

We do this face to face, via phone, via email, via our website, via post, via application forms, via apps [delete or insert as appropriate all of the methods you use to communicate with your team members] 

How do we share your data? 

• Third parties are organisations we have a legal reason to share your data with. These include: 
• HMRC 
  
• Our pension and healthcare schemes [provide details of external companies providing this resource
• Organisations we have a legal obligation to share information with i.e. for safeguarding, the CQC 
  
• The police or other law enforcement agencies if we have to by law or court order