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PRIVACY NOTICE FOR CLIENTS OF BUCHANAN OPTOMETRISTS

Why we collect and process your data

Buchanan Optometrists Ltd is a registered data controller. This privacy notice sets out our privacy policy.

We collect and process patients’ data for the purposes of healthcare and marketing.

Our legal bases for processing personal data for healthcare purposes, including appointment reminders, include public task or legitimate interests.

• When we provide services under the NHS General Optical Services contract (such as a sight test funded by the NHS), our legal basis for processing personal data in respect of that service is a public task
• Otherwise, our legal basis is legitimate interests

Our condition for processing special category data is the provision of health or social care.

We process our patients' data for marketing purposes with their consent or to meet a legitimate interest. This means we can tell you about eye care products and services that may be relevant to you. If you do not want us to process your data for marketing purposes, please let us know, and we will stop.

The data we may collect and process

The personal data of patients that we may collect and process includes:

• Your name, contact details and personal identifiers (such as date of birth and NHS number)
• Your general and ocular health history, your family medical and ocular history, and any relevant signs or symptoms you tell us about
• Details of medicines, spectacles and contact lenses prescribed for you
• Details of examinations and other healthcare checks and treatments we provide
• Information relevant to your continued care from other people who care for you or know you well, such as other health professionals and relatives

How we hold and share your data

We process your data in strict confidence. We keep your data securely in our filing and electronic systems. Patient records are only accessible to the healthcare professionals working at the practice and those under their supervision.

We will usually keep any personal data we hold about you for ten years after our last contact with you before we delete it. This is the period recommended as good practice by the College of Optometrists. If we collected the data when you were aged under 18, we will keep it until your 25th birthday, in line with NHS requirements. In exceptional cases, we may need to retain personal data for a more extended period and will explain our reasons for doing so on request.

In the course of processing your data we may share it with:

• The healthcare professionals working at this practice and those under their supervision
• Healthcare professionals and those under their supervision at other optical practices, but only if you have specifically asked us to pass your data (such as your prescription) to them
• Your GP, ophthalmologists and other healthcare providers and commissioners, and suppliers of optical appliances or similar products, in connection with your ongoing healthcare treatment
• Software providers for our patient record and invoicing systems, recall letters and financial institutions so that we can keep patient records up to date and arrange payment for services provided to you

Your rights

You have legal rights in respect of the personal data we hold about you. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published guidance on the full range of rights. The rights that are most relevant to the way in which we use your data include:

• The right to be informed about how we use personal data – this privacy notice gives that information
• The right to object – if you object to us processing your data for marketing purposes, or for healthcare purposes where our legal basis is legitimate interests (see ‘why we collect and process your data’, above), we will then stop doing so, unless we are processing the data in respect of a legal claim or can otherwise show that our legitimate interest in processing the data overrides your rights and interests
• The right of access – if you ask us for the personal data we hold about you we will provide it within a month, free of charge (unless we have already provided it to you, in which case we may have to charge you the administrative cost of providing it again).
• The right to rectification – if you ask us to correct personal data about you that is inaccurate or incomplete, we will do so within a month (unless we need longer, in which case we will discuss this with you)
• The right to erasure – also known as the ‘right to be forgotten’. If you ask us to delete your data, we will do so if there is no compelling reason to continue processing the data. We will not usually delete healthcare data before our usual time limit (see ‘how we hold and share your personal data’ above) where we have a duty to keep accurate records – for example, to comply with a legal obligation, or in connection with a legal claim. If you ask us to delete such data, we will discuss this with you

Contacting us and the ICO about your data

Please speak to us first if you have any questions or concerns about the way in which we process personal data. You can contact our Data Protection Officer Kathryn Buchanan via [email protected]

You have the right to complain to the ICO if you have a concern about our handling of your data which you do not think we can resolve. You can contact the ICO here.

How we use cookies

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We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and improve our website to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes, and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically allow cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

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Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide while visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.