Privacy Policy
Your personal details
When you supply your personal details to our clinic they are stored and processed for three reasons:
1.) We have a legal obligation to maintain notes in order to provide you with treatment. We are not allowed to treat you without taking and storing a case history.
2.) We also think that it is important that we can contact you in order to confirm your appointments with us or to contact you on matters related to your medical care (for example, we sometimes get x-ray reports sent to us and we might phone or email you to discuss it.)
3.) Provided we have your consent we might occasionally send you general health information in the form of articles, advice or newsletters. You may withdraw at any time - just let us know.
We have a legal obligation to retain your records for eight years after your most recent appointment, but after this period you can ask us to delete your records if you wish. Otherwise we will retain your records indefinitely in order that we can provide you with the best possible care should you need to see us at some future date. If you would like a copy of your notes then you can ask us for a copy of them.
Where is your data and how is it stored?
Your records are stored on our clinic computer. Both the computer that we use and the software that our notes are stored on (TM2) are password protected and backed up regularly. Out of hours the clinic is locked.
Who might have access to my data?
We never share your contact details or any part of your medical history without your consent. Only the following people/agencies might have access to your data/contact details:
1.) Your practitioners Thomas Brereton and Nina Brereton, the Osteopaths who own and work in Birch House Osteopathic clinic. We will not discuss your case with anyone else.
2.) We send text message appointment reminders, we do this through our practice software TM2, they have access to your number for this, but not to case histories or any other details. They will not use it for any other contact.
3.) If we have discussed it with you and gained your consent, we might contact your GP, for example if we think that you might need further investigations such as an X-ray or MRI we sometimes write to your GP to see if they agree.
4.) Sometimes we refer people for a private X-ray or MRI, We send them a short summary of your summary and case history. This will of course have been discussed and agreed on beforehand.
5.) We are subscribed to a website service called www.rehabmypatient.com that provides descriptions and video links to exercises and stretches. We might talk to you about this and ask if it is ok for us to email you these exercises, the email is sent via www.rehabmypatient.com , the website requires your name, email address and date of birth to sign up to the service, here is a link to their privacy policy https://www.rehabmypatient.com/privacy_policy.
We want you to know that we take privacy seriously and handle your personal data responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thomas and Nina Brereton