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Privacy & Cookie Policy

updated Jan 2023

Adult Privacy Notice

The group dental practices, all trading as Ascent Dental Care, are as follows:

Loughborough Dental and Implant Centre Ltd is a company registered in England with company number 10671396. Registered Office: 14 Albert Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 7JN Trading address; 66 Park Road, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE13 2HH

Malvern Dental and Implant Clinic Ltd is a company registered in England with company number 10676135. Registered Office: 14 Albert Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 7JN Trading address: 143 Barnards Green Road, Malvern, Worcestershire, WR14 3LT

Tamworth Healthcare Services Ltd is a company registered in England with company number 09174378. Registered Office: 14 Albert Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 7JN Trading address: 57 Albert Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 7JN

One Dental Clinic Ltd is a company registered in England with company number 07345237. Registered Office: 14 Albert Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79 7JN Trading address: 1 Arden Building, Station Road, Dorridge, Solihull, B93 8HH

If you would like to contact us about any of the information contained within this privacy notice you can contact the relevant practice and speak to the Practice Manager who acts as our Information Governance Lead.

The 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 (ICO) website as well as our professional guidelines and requirements.

The data controller is the Ltd company at each individual practice alongside our self-employed clinicians. All data controllers are registered with the ICO.

The information governance lead is the Practice Manager.

This Privacy Notice is available on the practice website or by email if you contact info@ascentdental.co.uk

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

The categories and examples of data we process are:

  • Personal data for the provision of dental health care
  • Personal data for the purposes of providing treatment plans, recall appointments, appointment reminders or treatment estimates
  • Personal data such as details of family members for the provision of health care to children or for emergency contact details
  • Personal data for the purposes of employed and self-employed team members employment and engagement respectively
  • Personal data for the purposes of direct mail/email/text to inform you of important announcements or about new treatments or services. We will only send this information where there is a legitimate interest shown. You can unsubscribe from these services if you wish
  • Personal data – IP addresses so that we can understand our patients better and inform our marketing approach as well as improve the web site experience
  • Special category data including health records for the purposes of the delivery of health care and meeting our legal obligations
  • Special category data including health records
  • Special category data to meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010
  • Special category data details of criminal record checks for employees and contracted team members

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

 

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 stored in the US in digital format when suitable safeguards have been put in place to allow personal data to be transferred out of the EU
  • Personal data is obtained when a patient joins the practice, when a patient is referred to the practice and when a patient subscribes to an email list.

For full details or where your data is stored, please ask to see our Information Governance Procedures (M 217C).

We have established the following lawful bases for processing your data:

Our lawful bases for processing personal data:

  • The legitimate interests of the dental practice and treatments we offer
  • 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
  • To comply with our legal obligations

Our lawful bases for processing 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
  • We obtain consent of the data subject to process criminal record checks

The reasons we process the data include:

  • To maintain your contemporaneous clinical records
  • To provide you with information about dental treatment options, prevention and oral health advice
  • To carry out financial transactions with you
  • To send your personal data to the General Dental Council or other authority as required by law
  • To communicate with you, as and when required, including appointment reminders, treatment plans, treatment estimates and other communications about your treatment or the practice
  • To communicate with your next of kin in an emergency
  • If a parent or carer to communicate with you about the person you parent or care for
  • To refer you 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 you receive from us

The personal data we process includes:

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.

We may process more sensitive special category data including ethnicity, race, religion, or sexual orientation so that we can meet our obligations under the Equality Act 2010, or for example to modify treatment to suit your religion and to meet NHS obligations.

The retention period for special data in patient records is a minimum of 10 years and may be longer for complex records or to meet our legal requirements. The retention periods for other personal data is 2 years after it was last processed. Details of retention periods are available in the Record Retention (M 215) procedure available from the practice.

We obtain your personal details when you enquire about our care and service, when you join the practice, when you subscribe to our newsletter or register online, when you complete a registration or medical history form and when another practitioner refers you for treatment at our practice. Sometimes patients are referred to us from other official sources such as local Dental Practices.

You have the following personal data rights:

  • The right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data
  • The right of access – to have a copy of the data we hold about you. Generally, we will not charge for this service
  • 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 our Information Governance Procedures (M 217C) or 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
  • 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

We have carried out a Privacy Impact Assessment in Sensitive Information Map, PIA and Risk Assessment (M 217Q) and you can request a copy from the details below. The details of how we ensure security of personal data is in our Security Risk Assessment (M 217M) and Information Governance Procedures (M 217C).

Comments, suggestions and complaints 

Please contact the information governance lead at the practice for a comment, suggestion or a complaint about your data processing at info@ascentdental.co.uk or 0330 912 5135 or by writing to or visiting the practice. 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.

Related practice procedures

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

  • Data Protection and Information Security Policy (M 233-CNS)
  • Sensitive Information Map, PIA and Risk Assessment (M 217Q)
  • Information Governance Procedures (M 217C)
  • Record Retention (M 215)

If you have an enquiry or a request, please contact the Information Governance Lead.

Data Opt-Out Policy

How the care services use your information

Ascent Dental Care is one of many organisations working in the health and care system to improve care for patients and the public. Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected in a patient record for that service. Collecting this information helps to ensure you get the best possible care and treatment. The information collected about you when you use these services can also be used and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for instance to help with:

  • Improving the quality and standards of care provided
  • Research into the development of new treatments
  • Preventing illness and diseases
  • Monitoring safety
  • Planning services

This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law.

Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed.

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.

To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.

On this web page you will:

  • See what is meant by confidential patient information
  • Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
  • Find out more about the benefits of sharing data
  • Understand more about who uses the data
  • Find out how your data is protected
  • Be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting
  • Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone
  • See the situations where the opt-out will not apply

You can also find out more about how patient information is used at:
https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/ (which covers health and care research); and
https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made).

You can change your mind about your choice at any time.

Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.

Our practice only uses your personal health data to provide individualised care to you and does not disclose your data for any other purposes. The national data opt-out does not apply to our usage of your data and we are compliant with the policy.

Processing of Staff and Candidates’ Information

This section explains how Ascent Dental Care processes the information of staff and applicants for job roles within the practice.

What data do we have?

So that we can provide a safe and professional service, we need to keep certain records about our team members. We may record the following types of data:

  • Your basic details and contact information e.g. your name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number and next of kin
  • Your financial details e.g. details so that we can pay you, insurance, pension and tax details
  • Your training records

We also record the following data which is classified as “special category”:

  • Health and social care data about you, which might include both your physical and mental health data – we will only collect this if it is necessary for us to know as your employer, e.g. fit notes or in order for you to claim statutory maternity/paternity pay
  • We may also, with your permission, record data about your race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or religion

As part of your engagement with the practice, you may be required to undergo a Criminal Record Check. This information is not kept for longer than is necessary, usually not more than 6 months following the recruitment decision, unless a dispute is raised or, in exceptional circumstances.

Why do we have this data?

We require this data so that we can contact you, pay you and make sure you receive the training and support you need to perform your job. By law, we need to have a lawful basis for processing your personal data.

We process your data because:

  • We have a legal obligation under UK employment law
  • We have a legitimate interest in processing your data – for example, for administration of training or learning course or emergency planning etc. These legitimate interests will be customary, or necessary for operational, administrative, HR and recruitment purposes and to otherwise manage employment relationship and interaction between employees
  • We are required to provide data to our regulator, CQC, as part of our public interest obligations
  • We are required to do so in our performance of another public task
  • We process your special category data because It is necessary for us to process requests for sick pay or maternity pay
  • If we request your criminal records data it is because we have a legal obligation to do this due to the type of work you do. This is set out in the Data Protection Act 2018 and the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975
  • We may also process your data with your consent. If we need to ask for your permission, we will offer you a clear choice and ask that you confirm to us that you consent. We will also explain clearly to you what we need the data for and how you can withdraw your consent

Where do we collect your data from?

As your employer we need to receive specific data about you. This is collected from or shared with:

  • You or your legal representative(s)
  • Third parties – for example this could include references from your previous job

We do this face to face, via phone, via email, via our website, via post, via application forms, via apps.

How do we share your data?

Third parties are organisations we have a legal reason to share your data with. These include:

  • HMRC
  • Our pension scheme NEST
  • External payroll provider
  • Organisations we have a legal obligation to share information with i.e. for safeguarding, the CQC, the GDC
  • The police or other law enforcement agencies if we have to by law or court order

How long do we hold your data?

The retention period for staff records is 6 years, however, certain information relating to team members may lawfully be kept for longer. Team members should refer to Record Retention (M 215) for further details on how this practice keeps and deposes of staff data. Application forms and interview notes for unsuccessful candidates are kept for six months.

Your rights

As an individual you have certain rights regarding our processing of your personal data, including a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as the relevant supervisory authority. For more information on your personal data rights, you can access information and advice on the ICO’s website.

You can request a copy of your personal file by contacting the Practice Manager.

Other websites

Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

Cookies

This website uses cookies to aid the users experience while visiting the website. Cookies are small files saved to the user’s computers hard drive that track, save and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website.

Users are advised that if they wish to deny cookies from this website on to their computers hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors.

This website uses software to better understand how the website is used by users. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computers hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. To find out more about Google’s Privacy Policy

Other cookies may be stored to your computer’s hard drive by external vendors when this website uses referral programs, sponsored links or adverts. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information is stored, saved or collected.

Privacy Notice for Children (under 18 years old)

The practice keeps records of your name, address, date of birth and details of any health problems as well as details of your dental treatment and details about your family. We keep this information so that we can provide you with the best dental care. Your personal information is kept very confidentially and securely.

We only use your personal information so we can give you the best dental care and for sending appointment reminders to you.

We only pass your personal information to another dentist, doctor or hospital if you have a problem that requires their special skills, and you need to go and see them. We will not give your information to anyone else unless the law allows us to, or we have to provide it for legal reasons.

If you leave the practice, we will stop using your information, but will keep it confidentially and securely until you are 25 years old (or 26 years old if you were 17 when your last treatment ended) or 11 years after the completion of treatment whichever is the longest.

We will then review if and when we can delete it. You can always ask for a copy of the information we hold for you, we can transfer it to another dentist or doctor at your request and you can ask us to stop using your personal information to send letters or contact you in other ways if you are no longer a patient at the practice.

When you reach 18 years of age the Privacy Notice about how we process your personal information will change to the adult version, this is listed above.

If you would like a copy of the information, we hold about you or if you have any other enquiries such as correcting an error in your information or providing a copy of your information to somebody else please contact our Practice Manager.