Privacy & Data Policy

Chu’s Dental Care 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 our professional guidelines and requirements.

The data controllers are Garry Chu, Ella Chu and the Data Protection Officer is Lisa Ferrier.

This full Privacy Notice is available at reception or by calling 01383727771

What personal data do we hold?

In order to provide you with a high standard of dental care and attention, we need to hold personal information about you. You will be asked to provide personal information when joining the practice. The purpose of us processing this data is to provide optimum health care to you.

This personal data comprises:

• your past and current medical and dental condition; personal details such as your age, national insurance number/NHS number, address, telephone number and your general medical practitioner
• radiographs, clinical photographs and study models
• information about the treatment that we have provided or propose to provide and its cost
• notes of conversations/incidents that might occur for which a record needs to be kept
• records of consent to treatment
• any correspondence relating to you with other health care professionals, for example in the hospital or community services.

The categories of data we process are:

• Personal data for the purposes of staff and self-employed team member management
• Personal data for the purposes of direct mail/email/text/other marketing
• Special category data including health records for the purposes of the delivery of health care
• Special category data including health records and details of criminal record checks for managing employees and contracted team members

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.

• Personal data is stored in the 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

The lawful basis for processing special category data such as patients’ and employees’ health

data is:

• Processing is necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine, for assessing the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or management of health or social care systems and services on the basis of Union or Member State law or a contract with a health professional

The lawful basis of processing personal data such as name, address, email or phone number is:

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

Why do we hold information about you?

We need to keep comprehensive and accurate personal data about our patients in order to provide them with safe and appropriate dental care. We also need to process personal data about you in order to provide care under NHS arrangements and to ensure the proper management and administration of the NHS.

We will process personal data that we hold about you in the following way:

Retaining information

The retention period for special data in patient records is a minimum of 11 years and may be longer for complex records in order to meet our legal requirements. The retention period for staff records is 6 years.

You have the following personal data rights:

• The right to be informed
• The right of access
• The right to rectification
• The right to erasure (clinical records must be retained for a certain time period)
• The right to restrict processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to object

Further details of these rights can be seen 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 of request.
• 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.

Security of information

Personal data about you is held in the practice’s computer system and/or in a manual filing system. The information is not accessible to the public and only authorised members of staff have access to it. Our computer system backs up the information routinely.

Disclosure of information

In order to provide proper and safe dental care, we may need to disclose personal information about you to:

• your general medical practitioner
• the hospital or community dental services
• other health professionals caring for you
• NHS payment authorities
• the Benefits Agency, where you are claiming exemption or remission from NHS charges 

Comments, suggestions and complaints

Please contact Lisa Ferrier at the practice for a comment, suggestion or a complaint about your data processing by calling 01383727771 or by writing to or visiting the practice at Chu’s Dental Care, Century House, 45 East Port, Dunfermline, KY12 7JA.  We take complaints very seriously. If you are unhappy with our 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.