Privacy Notice

Singh Surgical Partnership Privacy Notice

Executive summary

  1. As custodian of personal information relating to your medical treatment, we must treat that information in accordance with all applicable law and guidance. This Privacy Notice provides you with a detailed overview of how we will manage your data, from the point at which it is gathered and onwards. We will use that information for a variety of purposes including, but not limited to, providing you with care and treatment, sharing it with other medical professionals and research/clinic audit programmes, and seeking feedback on your patient experience. This Privacy Notice will give you all the details you need on how we use your information, and how we will comply with the law in doing so.
  2. In addition, you have a number of rights as a data subject. You can, for instance, seek access to your medical information, object to us using your information in particular ways and request rectification of any information, which, is inaccurate, or deletion of information, which is no longer, required (subject to certain exceptions). This Privacy Notice also sets out your rights in respect of your personal information, and how to exercise them.
  3. For ease of reference, this Privacy Notice is broken into separate sections below with headings, which will help you to navigate through the document.

Introduction
This Privacy Notice sets out details of the information that Singh Surgical Partnership may collect from you and how that information may be used. Please take your time to read this Privacy Notice carefully.

About us
In this Privacy Notice we use “we” or “us” or “our” or “Singh Surgical Partnership” to refer to the company who is using your personal information.

Your personal data and clinicians
As a patient of Singh Surgical Partnership, your treatment will be provided by Mr Singh who is a medical practitioner, he will make decisions about what information is collected about you, and will maintain his own set of medical records in relation to the treatment that he provides. He is the Data Controller in respect of your personal information, which he holds within those records, meaning that he must comply with the data protection legislation and relevant guidance when handling your personal information. To the extent relevant to his practice, you can expect him (including his medical secretary) to handle your information in line with this Privacy Notice. This includes using your personal information as set out in more detail below.

What personal information do we collect and use from patients?

  • The personal information that we collect will depend on your relationship with us. We will collect different information depending on whether or not you are already a patient of Singh Surgical Partnership.
  • We may use “special categories of personal information” (otherwise known as “special categories of data”) about you, such as information relating to your physical and mental health. For example, if you are a patient we will need to use information about your health in order to treat you.
  • If you provide personal information to us about other individuals (including medical or financial information) you should inform the individual about the contents of this Privacy Notice. We will process such information in accordance with this Privacy Notice.
  • In addition, you should note that in the event you amend data that we already hold about you (for instance by amending a pre-populated form) then we will update our systems to reflect the amendments. Our systems will continue to store historical data.

Personal information
As a patient of Singh Surgical Partnership, the personal information we hold about you may include the following:
a) Name
b) Contact details, such as postal address, email address and telephone number (including
mobile number)
c) Financial information
d) Occupation
e) Emergency contact details, including next of kin
f) Background referral details

Special Categories Personal Information
As a patient of Singh Surgical Partnership, we will hold information relating to your medical treatment, which is known as a special category of personal data under the law, meaning that it must be handled even more sensitively. The special categories of personal information we hold about you may include the following:
a) Details of your current or former physical or mental health. This may include information about any healthcare you have received (both from Singh Surgical Partnership directly and other healthcare providers such as GPs, dentists or hospitals (private and/or NHS)) or need, including about clinic and hospital visits and medicines administered. We provide further details below on the manner in which we handle such information.
Details of services you have received from us
Details of your nationality, race and/or ethnicity
Details of your religion
Details of any genetic data or biometric data relating to you
Data concerning your sex life and/or sexual orientation

The confidentiality of your medical information is important to Singh Surgical Partnership. We make every effort to prevent unauthorised access to and use the information relating to your current or former physical and metal health. In doing so Singh Surgical Partnership complies with UK data protection law and all applicable medical confidentiality guidelines issued by professional bodies including, but not limited to, The General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

From 25th May 2018 the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and a new Data Protection Act will replace the current Data Protection Act. All uses of Singh Surgical Partnership information will comply with the GDPR and the new Data Protection Act from that date onwards.

How do we collect your information?
We may collect personal information from a number of different sources including, but not limited to:

  • GPs
  • Dentists
  • Other hospitals, both NHS and private
  • Mental health providers
  • Commissioners of healthcare services
  • Clinicians (including their medical secretaries)

Directly from you
Information may be collected directly from you when:

  • You enter into a contract with Spire for the provision of healthcare services
  • You use those services
  • You submit a query to us including through by email
  • You correspond with us by letter, email or telephone.

From other healthcare organisations
Our patients may receive healthcare from other organisations in addition to Spire, and so in order to provide you with the best treatment possible we may have to collect personal information about you from other organisations. These may include:

  • Medical records from your GP
  • Medical records from your clinician (including their medical secretaries)
  • Medical records from your dentist
  • Medical records from the NHS or any private healthcare organisation

Medical records include information about your diagnosis, clinic and hospital visits and medicines administered.

From third parties
As detailed in the previous section, it is often necessary to seek information from other healthcare organisations. We may also collect information about you from third parties when:

  • You are referred to us for the provision of services including healthcare services
  • We liaise with your current or former employer, health professional or other treatment or benefit provider
  • We liaise with your family
  • We liaise with your insurance policy provider
  • We deal with experts (including medical experts) and other service providers about services you have received or are receiving from us
  • We deal with NHS health service bodies about services you have received or are receiving from us
  • We liaise with Government agencies, including the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and HMRC

How will we communicate with you?
In order to communicate with you, we are likely to do this by telephone, SMS, email, and / or post. If we contact you using the telephone number(s) which you have provided (landline and/or mobile), and you are not available which results in the call being directed to a voicemail and/or answering service, we may leave a voice message on your voicemail and/or answering service as appropriate.

However to ensure that we provide you with timely updates and reminders in relation to your healthcare (including basic administration information and appointment information, including reminders) we may communicate with you by SMS and/or encrypted email. This will be to provide:

  • Medical information (including test results and other clinical information)
  • Invoicing information

Please note that although providing your mobile number and email address and stating a preference to be communicated by a particular method will be taken as an affirmative confirmation that you are happy for us to contact you in that manner, we are not relying on your consent to process your personal data in order to correspond with you about your treatment.
As set out further below, processing your personal data for those purposes is justified on the basis that it is necessary to provide you with healthcare services.

What are the purposes for which your information is used?
We may ‘process’ your information for a number of different purposes, which is essentially the language used by the law to mean using your data. Each time we use your data we must have a legal justification to do so. The particular justification will depend on the purpose of the proposed use of your data. When the information that we process is classed as “special category of personal information”, we must have a specific additional legal justification in order to use it as proposed.

Generally we will rely on the following legal justifications, or ‘grounds’:

  • Taking steps at your request so that you can enter into a contract with Singh Surgical Partnership to receive healthcare services from us.
  • For the purposes of providing you with healthcare pursuant to a contract between you and Singh Surgical Partnership. We will rely on this for activities such as supporting your medical treatment or care and other benefits, supporting your doctor, nurse, carer or other healthcare professional and providing other services to you.
  • We have an appropriate business need to process your personal information and such business need does not cause harm to you. We will rely on this for activities such as quality assurance, maintaining our business records, developing and improving our products and services and monitoring outcomes.
  • We have a legal or regulatory obligation to use such personal information.
  • We need to use such personal information to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.
  • You have provided your consent to our use of your personal information.

Note that failure to provide your information further to a contractual requirement with us may mean that we are unable to set you up as a patient or facilitate the provision of your healthcare on Singh Surgical Partnership systems.
We provide further detail on these grounds in the sections below.

Appropriate business needs
One legal ground for processing personal data is where we do this in pursuit of legitimate interests and your privacy rights do not override those interests. Where we refer to use for our appropriate business needs, we are relying on this legal ground.
Special categories of personal information includes information about your:
1. Health
2. Sex life
3. Sexual orientation
4. Ethnicity
5. Political opinions
6. Religious or philosophical beliefs
7. Genetic or biometric information

The right to object to other uses of your personal data
You have a range of rights in respect of your personal data. This includes the right to object to Singh Surgical Partnership using your personal information in a particular way (such as sharing that information with third parties), and we must stop using it in that way unless specific exceptions apply. This includes, for example, if it is necessary to defend a legal claim brought against us, or it is otherwise necessary for the purposes of your ongoing treatment.
You will find details of our legal grounds for each of our processing purposes below. We have set out individually those purposes for which we will use your personal information, and under each one we set out the legal justifications, or grounds, which allow us to do so. You will note that we have set out a legal ground, as well as an, ‘additional’ legal ground for special categories of personal information. This is because we have to demonstrate additional legal grounds where we are using information, which relates to a person’s healthcare, as we will be the majority of the times we use your personal information.

To provide you with healthcare and related services
Clearly, the reason you have come to us is to provide you with healthcare, and so we have to use your personal information for that.
Legal grounds:

  • Providing you with healthcare and related services
  • Fulfilling our contract with you for the delivery of healthcare

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

  • We will use your personal information in order to ensure that your account and billing is fully accurate and up-to-date

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:
For medical audit/research purposes
Clinical audit
Singh Surgical Partnership may process your personal data for the purposes of local clinical audit – i.e. an audit carried out for the purposes of assessing outcomes for patients and identifying improvements, which could be made for the future. We are able to do so on the basis of a legitimate interest and the public interest in statistical and scientific research.
a) We need to use the data in order to provide healthcare services to you
b) The use is necessary to protect your vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent

For account settlement purposes
Our providing you with healthcare and other related services.

Communicating with you and resolving any queries or complaints that you might have.
From time to time, patients may raise queries, or even complaints, with Singh Surgical Partnership and we take those communications very seriously. It is important that we resolve such matters fully and properly, and so we will need to use your personal information in order to do so.
Legal grounds

  • Our providing you with healthcare and other related services
  • Our having an appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you

Communicating with any other individual that you ask us to update about your care and updating other healthcare professionals about your care.
In addition, other healthcare professionals or organisations may need to know about your treatment in order for them to provide you with safe and effective care, and so we may need to share your personal information with them. A further detail on the third parties who may need access to your information is set out below.

Legal grounds

  • Our providing you with healthcare and other related services
  • We have a legitimate interest in ensuring that other healthcare professionals who are routinely involved in your care have a full picture of your treatment

Complying with our legal or regulatory obligations, and defending or exercising our legal rights
As a provider of healthcare, we are subject to a wide range of legal and regulatory responsibilities, which is not possible to list fully here. We may be required by law or by regulators to provide personal information, and in which case we will have a legal responsibility to do so. In order to fully investigate and respond to those actions, it is necessary to access your personal information (although only to the extent that it is necessary and relevant to the subject-matter).

Legal grounds
The use is necessary in order for us to comply with our legal obligations

Who do we share your information with?
From time to time we may disclose your information to the third parties listed below for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice. This might include:

  • A doctor, nurse, carer or any other healthcare professional involved in your treatment
  • Other members of support staff involved in the delivery of your care, like receptionists and porters
  • Anyone that you ask us to communicate with or provide as an emergency contact, for example your next of kin or carer
  • NHS organisations, including NHS Resolution, NHS England, Department of Health
  • Other private sector healthcare providers
  • Your GP
  • Your dentist
  • Third parties who assist in the administration of your healthcare, such as insurance companies
  • Government bodies, including the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and HMRC
  • The police and other third parties where reasonably necessary for the prevention or detection of crime
  • Our insurers
  • Debt collection agencies
  • Credit referencing agencies
  • Our third party services providers such as IT suppliers, actuaries, auditors, lawyers, marketing agencies, document management providers and tax advisers
  • Selected third parties in connection with any sale, transfer or disposal of our business

How long do we keep personal information for?
We will only keep your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the relevant purposes set out in this Privacy Notice

Your rights
Under data protection law you have certain rights in relation to the personal information that we hold about you. These include rights to know what information we hold about you and how it is used. You may exercise these rights at any time by contacting us.
There will not usually be a charge for handling a request to exercise your rights.
If we cannot comply with your request to exercise your rights we will usually tell you why.
There are some special rules about how these rights apply to health information as set out in legislation including the Data Protection Act (current and future), the General Data Protection Regulation as well as any secondary legislation, which regulates the use of personal information.
If you make a large number of requests or it is clear that it is not reasonable for us to comply with a request then we do not have to respond.

The right to access your personal information

    • You are usually entitled to a copy of the personal information we hold about you and details about how we use it.
    • Your information will usually be provided to you in writing, unless otherwise requested. If you have made the request electronically (e.g. by email) the information will be provided to you by electronic means where possible.
    • Please note that in some cases we may not be able to fully comply with your request, for example if your request involves the personal data of another person and it would not be fair to that person to provide it to you.

You are entitled to the following under data protection law.

      • The purposes for which we use your personal information
      • The types of personal information we hold about you
      • Who your personal information has been or will be shared with, including in particular

a. If your personal information leaves the EU, how we make sure that it is protected
b. Where possible, the length of time we expect to hold your personal information.
c. If the personal data we hold about you was not provided by you the details of the source
d. Your right to ask us to amend or delete your personal information
e. Your right to ask us to restrict how your personal information is used or to object to
f. Your right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office
We also need to provide you with a copy of your personal data
We take reasonable steps to ensure that the information we hold about you is accurate and complete. However, if you do not believe this is the case, you can ask us to update or amend it.

The right to erasure (also known as the right to be forgotten)
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time to ensure that it remains accurate. In the event that there are any material changes to the manner in which your personal information is to be used then we will provide you with an updated copy of this Privacy Notice.
In some circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete the personal information we hold about you. However, there are exceptions to this right and in certain circumstances we can refuse to delete the information in question. In particular, for example, we do not have to comply with your request if it is necessary to keep your information in order to perform tasks, which are in the public interest, including public health, or for the purposes of establishing, exercise or defending legal claims.

The right to restriction of processing
In some circumstances, we must “pause” our use of your personal data if you ask us to. We do not have to comply with all requests to restrict our use of your personal information. In particular, for example, we do not have to comply with your request if it is necessary to keep your information in order to perform tasks, which are in the public interest, including public health, or for the purposes of establishing, exercise or defending legal claims.

The right to data portability
In some circumstances, we must transfer personal information that you have provided to us to you or (if this is technically feasible) to another individual/ organisation of your choice. The information must be transferred in an electronic format.

The right to withdraw consent
In some cases we need your consent in order for our use of your personal information to comply with data protection legislation.
Where we do this, you have the right to withdraw your consent to further use of your personal information. You can do this by contacting the Singh Surgical Partnership.

The right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office
You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are unhappy with the way that we have dealt with a request from you to exercise any of these rights, or if you think we have not complied with our legal obligations.
More information can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website:
https://ico.org.uk/
Making a complaint will not affect any other legal rights or remedies that you have.