Privacy policy

Regent Dental Practice aims to meet the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the guidelines on the Information Commissioner’s website as well as professional guidelines and requirements.

The data controller is Dr Sheraz, the Information Governance Lead is Dr Sheraz who is also the Data Protection Officer.

This Privacy Notice is available at reception or by calling 01223 355923.

Purpose of data processing

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

Categories of data processed

• Personal data for the provision of dental health care
• Personal data for treatment plans, recall appointments, reminders or estimates
• Personal data such as details of family members for health care to children or emergency contact details
• Personal data for employed and self-employed team members employment and engagement
• Personal data, IP addresses, for understanding patients and informing marketing approach and improving web site experience
• Special category data including health records for delivery of health care and meeting legal obligations
• Special category data to meet Equality Act 2010 requirements
• Special category data details of criminal record checks for employees and contracted team members

Data minimisation

We minimise the data that we keep, and do not keep it for longer than necessary.

Sharing your data

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 referring a patient to another practitioner or to secondary care such as a hospital, permission will be gained before the referral is made and personal data is shared. Your data will be shared with the NHS in England.

• 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, when referred to the practice and when subscribing to an email list

For full details of where your data is stored, ask to see Information Governance Procedures.

Lawful bases for processing data

For personal data

• The legitimate interests of the dental practice
• Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject or to take steps to enter into a contract
• Consent of the data subject

For 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
• Consent of the data subject is obtained to process criminal record check

Reasons for processing data

• To maintain contemporaneous clinical records
• To provide dental treatment, prevention and oral health advice
• To carry out financial transactions
• To manage NHS dental care treatment
• To send personal data to the General Dental Council or other authority as required by law
• To communicate including appointment reminders, treatment plans, estimates and other communications about treatment or the practice
• To communicate with next of kin in an emergency
• If a parent or carer to communicate about the person you parent or care for
• To refer to other dentists or doctors and health professionals as required
• To obtain criminal record disclosures for team members
• For debt recovery
• To continually improve the care and service received

Personal data processed

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. More sensitive special category data including ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual orientation may be processed to meet obligations under the Equality Act 2010, or to modify treatment to suit your religion and to meet NHS or HSC obligations.

Retention periods

• Special data in patient records: minimum of 10 years and may be longer for complex records or to meet legal requirements
• Staff records: 6 years
• Other personal data: 2 years after it was last processed

Details of retention periods are available in the Record Retention procedure available from the practice.

How your personal details are obtained

Personal details are obtained when you enquire about care and service, when joining the practice, when subscribing to the newsletter or registering online, when completing a registration or medical history form and when another practitioner refers you for treatment at the practice. Occasionally patients are referred from other official sources such as NHS clinics or hospitals.

Your rights over your personal data

• The right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data
• The right of 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 Information Governance Procedures or at the Information Commissioner’s website.

What this means in practice

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 the practice 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 the practice to delete it. You can also withdraw consent from communication methods such as telephone, email or text.

Privacy impact assessment and security

We have carried out a Privacy Impact Assessment and you can request a copy from the details below. The details of how security of personal data is ensured is in the Security Risk Assessment and Information Governance Procedures.

Comments, suggestions and complaints

Please contact the IG Lead at the practice for a comment, suggestion or a complaint about your data processing at jay.begumrdp@gmail.com, or 01223 355923 or by writing to or visiting the practice at 102 Regent Street, Cambridge, Cambs, CB2 1DP. The practice takes complaints very seriously.

If unhappy with the 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’s misused personal data. You can also visit their website for information on how to make a data protection complaint.

Related practice procedures

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

• Data Protection and Information Security Policy, Consent Policy
• Privacy Impact Assessment, Information Governance Procedures, Record Retention