Privacy Notice – Back to Balance

(Why we collect your personal data and what we do with it)

When you supply your personal details to this clinic they are stored and processed for 4 reasons (the bits in bold are the relevant terms used in the General Data Protection Regulation – ie the law):

1. We need to collect personal information about your health in order to provide you with the best possible treatment. This is deemed to be “Sensitive Data”. Your requesting treatment and our agreement to provide that care constitutes a contract. You can, of course, refuse to provide the information, but if you were to do that we would not be able to provide treatment.

2. We have a “Legitimate Interest” in collecting that information, because without it we couldn’t do our job effectively and safely.

3. We also think that it is important that we can contact you in order to confirm your appointments with us or to update you on matters related to your medical care. This again constitutes “Legitimate Interest”, but this time it is your legitimate interest.

4. Provided we have your consent, we may occasionally send you general health information in the form of articles, advice or newsletters. You may withdraw this consent at any time – just let us know by any convenient method.

We have a legal obligation to retain your records for 8 years after your most recent appointment (or age 25, if this is longer), but after this period we will securely shred these records.

Your records are stored:

on paper, in locked filing cabinets, and the office is always locked and alarmed when unattended.
electronically on our office computers. These are password-protected, backed up regularly, and the office is locked and alarmed when unattended.

We will never share your data with anyone who does not need access without your written consent. Only the following people/agencies will have routine access to your data:

Your practitioner, in order that they can provide you with treatment – other healthcare professionals that you are seeing where your permission has been given.
Administrative staff, accountant and IT Support. These professionals will not have access to your medical notes, just your essential contact details. We will ensure that they are fully aware that they must treat that information as confidential, and we will ensure that they sign a non-disclosure agreement.
We also use MailChimp to send clinic newsletters, so your name and email address will be saved on their servers. MailChimp are GDPR compliant. You will have the opportunity to unsubscribe at any time as per the instructions at the bottom of every newsletter.

You have the right to see what personal data of yours we hold, and you can also ask us to correct any factual errors. Provided the legal minimum period has elapsed, you can also ask us to erase your records.

We want you to be absolutely confident that we are treating your personal data responsibly, and that we are doing everything we can to make sure that the only people who can access that data have a genuine need to do so.

Of course, if you feel that we are mishandling your personal data in some way, you have the right to complain. Complaints need to be sent to what is referred to in the jargon as the “Data Controller”. Here are the details you need for that:

Annalisa Zisman (Back to Balance UK Ltd)
10 Pallister Terrace
Roehampton Vale, London, SW15 3ER
annalisa@backtobalance.co.uk

If you are not satisfied with our response, then you have the right to raise the matter with the Information Commissioner’s Office, with whom I am registered.