Privacy Policy

The Old Windsor Dental Practice understands the value of your personal information and we respect your right to privacy while compiling with the 1988 Data Protection Act and this policy describes our procedures for ensuring information about patients is processed fairly and lawfully.

We are committed to maintaining your confidence and trust. This commitment includes protecting the personal information that we obtain from you.

General: Unless you provide information voluntarily, we will not collect any personal information about you when you visit www.windsordentist.co.uk

Email from You: You may email messages to us that will contain your screen name and email address along with any additional information you may wish to include in the text of your message. We do not share your personal information with third parties, unless you have granted us permission to do so.

Website Usage Information: Our web server automatically collects and aggregates information about your visit to www.windsordentist.co.uk, including your IP address, service provider, browser type, domain names of referring websites, operating system, pages accessed on our website, and the date and time of your access. This information is not personally identifiable. We analyze this aggregated information in an effort to optimize your experience and enhance your time spent with us online.

In addition, in order to provide patients with a high standard of dental care and attention, we need to hold personal information about them. This comprises:

1. Past and present medical and dental condition.
2. Personal details such as age, NHS number, address, telephone number and the name and address of their medical practitioner.
3. Radiographs, clinical photographs, and study models.
4. Information about the treatment that we have provided, or propose to provide, and all associated costs.
5. Notes of conversations/incidents that might occur for which a record needs to be kept.
6. Records of consent to treatment.
7. Any correspondence relating to them with other healthcare professionals i.e. hospital or community services.

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 date about patients in order to provide some care under NHS arrangements and to ensure the proper management and administration of the NHS.

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

Retaining information:
We retain patient’s records while they are a patient of the practice, and after they cease to be a patient, for at least 11 years or, for children, until age 25, whichever is the longer.

Security of information:
Personal data about patients is held on a secured practice computer system. The information is not accessible to the public and only authorised members of staff have access to it. Our computer system is managed by a professional IT company, password protected, has secure audit trails and we take off-site back-ups on a daily basis. Our processes are audited regularly to ensure compliance with this policy.

Third Party Relationships:
We may disclose or use your personal information when we, in good faith, believe that either the law requires us to do so or such action is necessary to protect or defend The Old Windsor Dental Practice rights or property.

In order to provide proper and safe dental care, we may need to disclose personal information about patients to, but not limited to:

• A patient’s general medical practitioner
• The hospital or community services
• Other health professionals caring for them
• NHS payment authorities
• Inland Revenue
• The Benefits Agency, if you are claiming exemption or remission from NHS charges where relevant
• Private Dental Schemes of which they are a member

Disclosure will take place on a ‘need to know’ basis so that only those individuals/organisations that need to know in order to provide care to patients and for the proper administration of Government bodies will be given the information. Only that information that the recipient needs to know will be disclosed. In very limited circumstances, or when required by law or a court order, personal data may have to be disclosed to a third party not connected to health. In all other situations, disclosure will only occur when we have the patients’ specific consent. Where possible, they will be informed of these.

We provide reasonable and practical access for you to identify inaccuracies in your personal information. If you provide us with personal information through the Old Windsor Dental Practice website, you have the right to access this data.

To request an update, modification, or deletion of any personal information maintained by The Old Windsor Dental Practice, please contact us. We will, upon request, update or delete your personal information.

We keep the personal information collected through our website as long as it is required to service your request, or until you request its deletion. We retain aggregated information collected about your visit to our website (i.e. browser type, domain name, pages visited) until we have completed our review and analysis of this information.

We do not add third party data to your personal information nor maintain your personal information in a merged or supplemented format.

Patients have the right of access to the data that we hold about them and to receive a copy. Access any be obtained by making a request in writing. Patients will be required to pay a fee of £26for access to computer records or £45 for access to manual records (including radiographs). We may require evidence of identity before being able to comply with the request. We will provide a copy of the record, and an explanation of the record if required within 40 days of the request and payment of the fee.

Websites accessed from www.windsordentist.co.uk via hyperlinks or links to other sites may be governed by privacy policies and practices that differ from this Policy. The information practices of other third party websites linked to www.windsordentist.co.uk are not covered by this Policy. You are encouraged to become familiar with the privacy policies and practices of every website you visit prior to disclosing any personal information.

A cookie is a small text file containing a unique identifier containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website that is placed on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device. Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improve the user experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests. The cookies used on this website have been categorised based on the categories found in the ICC UK Cookie guide.

We may modify or amend this Policy from time to time. In an effort to keep you informed of changes to this Policy, we will indicate the effective date of the currently posted policy at the top of the Policy. For substantial changes to this Policy, we will notify you by placing prominent notice on our homepage. Changes to this Policy will not affect our use of previously provided personal information. No personal information provided by you under the terms of this Policy (or any prior version of this Policy) will be used in a manner that is materially inconsistent with it, without your prior written permission.

If patients do not wish personal data that we hold about them to be disclosed or used in the way described in this policy, please discuss the matter with your dentist. Patients have the right to object, and these objections would be respected without question, but this may affect our ability to provide them with dental care.

Acceptance: By using www.windsordentist.co.uk, you signify your acceptance of this Policy, as amended from time to time in accordance with the Changes to The Old Windsor Dental Practice Privacy Policy section above. If you do not agree with the terms and conditions contained in this Policy, please do not use this website.