Balance Point Acupuncture Privacy Notice
The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (the GDPR).

What is classed as 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. Examples of special category data we may hold about you include your patient notes.

This privacy notice comes into effect on 25 May 2018.
Balance Point Acupuncture is classed as a ‘data controller’ which means we decide how your personal data is processed and for what purposes.
This privacy notice applies to information we collect from:
• patients;
• prospective patients;
• former patients;
• visitors to the Balance Point Acupuncture website;

How 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.

1. We use your name, address, telephone number and email address to make and rearrange appointments. Some patients and prospective patients tell us about their medical conditions and medication by email or online enquiry forms. We are unable to send or receive encrypted emails so you should be aware that any emails we send or receive may not be protected in transit. Please note this site is web hosted and protected by anti viral software. We do not use cookies to track visitor use of the website. We do provide links to trusted sites.

2. We keep a permanent attendance register ie a diary, 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 our regulatory body ie the British Acupuncture Council. This information when not in use is stored in a locked filing cabinet.

3. Information about your presenting complaint, symptoms, relevant medical and family history reported by you together with our clinical findings about your health and wellbeing is used for the purposes of making a full traditional diagnosis, formulating treatment strategy and treatment planning.This information is recorded on paper only and stored in a locked filing cabinet.

4. We keep a written record in paper form of any treatment given and details of the 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. This information is recorded on paper only and stored in a locked filing cabinet.

5. We hold your GP’s name and address because it is a mandatory requirement in the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct.

6. 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.

7. We keep accident records for any patients and visitors 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.

8. 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 BAcC’s insurers and other interested parties.

9. Appointments are kept in a hard copy diary and electronically on a password protected apple device. Appointment details on the electronic device are coded to protect identification. Any contact details are also coded to protect identification. The hard copy diary is stored in a locked filing cabinet when not in use.

10. We use a third party service Pixel Internet to help maintain the security and performance of our website.

Sharing your personal data
• We do not supply any personal data to any third party organisation for marketing or any other purposes. We do not adopt marketing tactics ourselves that involve the use of personal data.

Your personal data will be shared in certain circumstances as below:

• with named third parties with your explicit consent for example another health care professional;
• 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 the regulatory body, the British Acupuncture Council and an insurance company in the event of a complaint or insurance claim being brought against the practitioner; or
• a solicitor in the event of any investigation or legal proceedings.

How long do we keep your personal data?
We keep your personal data for no longer than reasonably necessary.
We keep patient records for a period of 7 years in accordance with the British Acupuncture Code of Professional Conduct. Patient information is retained in a locked filing cabinet and those files no longer required to be retained will be incinerated or shredded by a company authorised to conduct such procedure.

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 the 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 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/is-my-information-being-handled-correctly/

Contact Details
To exercise all relevant rights, queries and complaints please in the first instance contact us at
Balance Point Acupuncture Tel: 07790681669
nk@balancepoint-acupuncture.co.uk