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Privacy Policy

Purpose of privacy notice

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice informs you as to how we look after your personal data and tells you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

 

Whose information does this privacy notice apply to?

This privacy notice applies to information we collect from:

 

  • patients;

  • prospective patients;

  • former patients;

  • people who subscribe to our marketing communications;

  • visitors to our website

 

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 we may hold about you include your contact and appointment details.

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 we may hold about you include your patient notes.

 

How and why do we process your personal data?

We comply with our obligations under the GDPR by keeping personal data up to date; by storing and destroying it securely; by not collecting or retaining excessive amounts of data; by protecting personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and by ensuring that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data. We use your personal data for the purposes set out below.

Our Lawful Bases for Processing: For standard personal data (such as your name, contact details, and appointment history listed in Sections 1–5, 8, and 13), our lawful basis for processing is Performance of a Contract (to manage your bookings and provide our services) and Legitimate Interests (for business administration and defending legal claims). Where you have signed up for marketing (Sections 2, 17, 18), our lawful basis is Consent.

Our Condition for Processing Health Data: Because we record medical history, symptoms, and clinical findings (Special Category Data listed in Sections 3, 5–12, 14, 15), we process this under Article 9(2)(h) of the UK GDPR, which permits the processing of health data for the purposes of the provision of health or social care or treatment, managed by a healthcare professional bound by professional secrecy.

Sections 1 – 15 apply to our patients, prospective patients, former patients and visitors to our clinic.

 

  1. We use your name, address, telephone number and email address to make and rearrange appointments.

  2. We use your name, address, telephone number and email address, only if we have your explicit consent, to send you marketing materials.

  3. Some patients and prospective patients return pre-first appointment questionnaires or tell us about their medical conditions and medication by email or online enquiry forms.

  4. We keep a permanent attendance register which records all appointments for patients attending our clinic to keep a record of when you were treated for tax purposes and to secure potential evidence in the event of a criminal prosecution, civil litigation, insurance claim or complaint to my regulatory body, the British Acupuncture Council.

  5. We 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.

  6. We use your presenting complaint and symptoms reported by you for the purposes of making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

  7. We use any relevant medical and family history you have told us for making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

  8. We use your GP’s name and address in the event that we need to contact your GP including in an emergency and because it is a mandatory requirement in the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct.

  9. We use our clinical findings about your health and wellbeing for making a full traditional diagnosis, and formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.

  10. We keep a record of and refer to that record of any treatment given and details of progress of your case, including reviews of treatment planning to enable us to: review the full traditional diagnosis, treatment strategy and planning; and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint.

  11. We record and use any information and advice that we have given, especially when referring patients to any other health professional, to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint.

  12. We record any decisions made in conjunction with you to help you to receive the most appropriate treatment and to secure evidence in the event of criminal proceedings, civil litigation, an insurance claim or complaint.

  13. We keep accident records for any patients, visitors or staff who are involved in accidents at our 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.

  14. In the event of an adverse incident occurring to any of our patients we report the matter to the British Acupuncture Council and our 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 British Acupuncture Council’s insurers and other interested parties.

  15. Where relevant we 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.

 

Section 16 applies to those who complain about our services.

 

  1. When we receive a complaint from a person, we make up a file containing the details of the complaint. This normally contains the identity of the complainant and any other individuals involved in the complaint.

We will only use the personal information we collect to process the complaint and to check on the level of service we provide. We usually have to disclose the complainant’s identity to whoever the complaint is about. If a complainant doesn’t want information identifying him or her to be disclosed, we will try to respect that. However, it may not be possible to handle a complaint on an anonymous basis. We may need to provide personal information collected and processed in relation to complaints to the British Acupuncture Council or our insurance company. We will keep personal information contained in complaint files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to a complaint will be retained for two years from closure. It will be retained in a secure environment and access to it will be restricted according to the ‘need to know’ principle.

Similarly, where enquiries are submitted to us, we will only use the information supplied to us to deal with the enquiry and any subsequent issues and to check on the level of service we provide.

 

Sections 17 and 18 apply to subscribers to our marketing communications.

 

  1. We maintain and use records of subscribers to our marketing, only with their consent.

  2. We may use a third-party provider to deliver our marketing communications. We gather statistics around email opening and clicks using industry standard technologies including clear gifs to help us monitor and improve our communications.

 

Sections 19 – 22 apply to our website users.

 

  1. We use a third-party service, Wix, to host our website and publish our blog. Our website is hosted on servers provided and managed by Wix.com Ltd. For information about how Wix processes data, please see the Wix Privacy Policy.

  2. We use standard Wix Analytics to collect anonymous information about how visitors interact with our site. This includes data such as the number of users viewing specific pages. We use this information to monitor site performance, report on the effectiveness of our content, and improve our services.

  3. We may also use a third-party service, Google Analytics, to collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We 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. We do not make, and do not allow Google to make, any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting our website. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our website, we will be up front about this. We will make it clear when we collect personal information and will explain what we intend to do with it.

  4. We use website cookies to improve user experience of our website by enabling our website to 'remember' users, either for the duration of their visit - using a 'session

cookie' - or for repeat visits - using a 'persistent cookie'.

 

How I Store and Transport Your Data

As a fully online practice, all of your personal details, consultation forms, and treatment notes are stored digitally and never kept in physical, paper format.

 

  • Storage: Your information is stored securely within Jane App. This platform is fully online, password-protected, and compliant with data protection laws. Any backup files or correspondence are stored on password-protected devices or within secured, GDPR-compliant cloud storage.

  • Data in Transit: While our clinical platform (Jane App) uses secure, encrypted transmission for intake forms and portal messages, standard email communications may not be fully secure in transit. Please consider this when emailing sensitive health information. We monitor incoming emails for viruses, and we advise patients to minimize sending highly sensitive medical data via standard email where possible.

  • Public Wi-Fi Warning: While I do not transport physical files, I may access your records remotely. I only do this using password-protected devices and secure, private internet connections, avoiding public Wi-Fi networks to prevent unauthorized access.

 

Sharing your personal data

 

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential, and will be shared:

 

  • with named third parties with your explicit consent;

  • with the relevant authority such as the police or a court, if necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject e.g. a court order;

  • with your doctor or the police if necessary to protect yours or another person’s life; • with the police or a local authority for the purpose of safeguarding a children or vulnerable adults; or

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

 

For further details about the situations when information about you might be shared, please see the Information Commissioner’s website at https://ico.org.uk/for-the public.

 

How long do we keep your personal data?

We keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary. We keep adult patient records for a period of 7 years in accordance with the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct https://acupuncture.org.uk/standards-codes/.

For minors, records are securely kept until their 25th or 26th birthday in accordance with UK legal requirements for medical records.

 

When your data is no longer needed, it is permanently deleted from all cloud systems, backups, and clinic software, ensuring it cannot be recovered.

 

In the event of my sudden illness, incapacity, or death, access to your personal data and clinical records will be temporarily transferred to my appointed clinical executor/colleague, Kate Scott, or the British Acupuncture Council, for the purpose of securely storing your records for the mandatory 7-year retention period required by the British Acupuncture Council Code of Professional Conduct, or to safely coordinate the transfer of your ongoing care with your explicit consent.

 

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

 

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 we hold about you.

  • The right to request that we 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 us to retain such data.

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

  • The right to request that we 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), (where applicable) [This right only applies where the processing is based on consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with you and in either case we are processing the data by automated means].

  • 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 object to the processing of personal data, (where applicable) [This right only applies where processing is based on legitimate interests (or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority); direct marketing and processing for the purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics].

  • The right to be informed if your data is lost. We 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.

 

Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Privacy Notice, then we 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, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

 

Contact Details

Kibworth Acupuncture is operated by Lisa Smith, who is registered as a Data Controller with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) under registration number ZC155599.

 

To exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints please in the first instance contact us at lisa@kibworthacupuncture.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.

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