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privacy notice

PRIVACY NOTICE

We will keep your records safely

This practice complies with the Data Protection Act (1998) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018. This means that we will ensure that your information is processed fairly and lawfully.

What personal information do we need to hold

• Your past and current medical and dental condition; personal details such as your age, address, telephone number and your general medical practitioner

• Radiographs, clinical photographs and study models

• Information about the treatment that we have provided or purpose and its cost

• Notes of conversations or incidents that might occur for which a record needs to be kept

• Records of consent to treatment

• Any correspondence relating to you with other health care professionals, for example in the hospital or community services.

Why do we hold this information

We need to keep accurate personal data about patients in order you with safe and appropriate dental care.

Retaining information

We are required to retain your dental records, X- rays and Study models while you are a patient of this practice and after you cease to be a patient, for at least eleven years or until age 25, which ever if the longer.

Security

Your information is held in the practice’s computer and in a secure manual filing system. The information is only accessible to authorised personnel. Personal information will not be removed from this practice without the patient’s authorised consent. Your personal information is carefully protected by the staff at this practice. All access to information is held securely and can only be accessed by regular changed passwords. Data is encrypted and computer terminals are closed if unattended

We may need to disclose your information

In order to provide proper and safe dental care to:

• Your general medical practitioner

• The hospital or community dental services

• Other health professionals caring for you

Disclosure will take place on a ‘need to know’ basis, so that only those individuals/organisations who need to know in order to provide care to you and for the proper administration of Government (whose personnel are covered by strict confidentiality rules) will be given the information. Only information that the recipient needs to know will be disclosed.

In very limited circumstances or when required by law or court order, personal data may have to be disclosed to a third party not connected with your health care. In all other situations, disclosure that is not covered by this code of practice will only occur when we have specific consent. Where possible you will be informed of these requests for disclosure.

Your Rights

You have the right to:

Be informed about the personal data we hold and why we hold it.
Access a copy of your data that we hold by contacting us directly; we will acknowledge your request and supply a response within one month or sooner.
Check the information we hold about you is correct and to make corrections if not
Have your data erased in certain circumstances
Transfer your data to someone else if you tell us to do so and it’s safe and legal to do so.
Tell us not to actively process or update your data in certain circumstances

How long is the Personal Data stored for?

We will store patient data for as long as we are providing care, treatment or recalling patients for further care. We will archive (that is, store without further action) for as long as is required for legal purposes as recommended by the NHS or other trusted experts recommend
We must store employment data for six years after an employee has left.
We must store contractor’s data for seven years after the contract is ended.

What if you are not happy or wish to raise a concern about our data processing?

You can complain in the first instance to our Data protection officer, who is Jane Symon and we will do our best to resolve the matter. If this fails, you can complain to the information commissioner at www.ico.org.uk/concerns or by calling 03031231113

data quality

DATA QUALITY

The South Lakes Dental Clinic needs accurate, reliable, and timely data to provide the best service to patients, employ an effective team, and meet internal and external requirements.

This policy defines our approach to data quality; it includes paper and electronic records.

The Information Governance Lead, Jane Symon, is responsible for this policy.

The practice maintains data quality to:

▪ Meet the requirements of UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018

▪ Manage an effective dental team

▪ Manage healthcare planning

▪ Provide appropriate and timely prevention and treatment to patients in line with current research and best practice guidelines

▪ Have accurate management information to maintain standards

▪ Monitor and review activities for continuing improvement

The obligations of the team to maintain accurate data include:

▪ The Department of Health, the Data Protection and Security Toolkit requirements

▪ The Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR

▪ The Freedom of Information Act (2000)

▪ The Access to Health Records Act (1990)

▪ Contracts of employment

▪ Professional codes of practice

The practice data quality standards are:

▪ Defined and consistent:

○ Team members understand the data that is being collected, and it must be internally consistent

▪ Timely:

○ Data is collected at the earliest opportunity, clinical notes are contemporaneous, and data is retained for the minimum length of time.

▪ Complete:

○ Data, as required, is captured in full

▪ Free from duplication:

○ Data such as patient records or marketing details are not duplicated

▪ Complete:

○ The required data, such as for a patient record, is complete

▪ Legitimacy, data is collected following the seven key principles of GDPR:

○ Lawfulness, fairness and transparency

○ Purpose limitation

○ Data minimisation

○ Accuracy

○ Storage limitation

○ Integrity and confidentiality (security)

○ Accountability

Last modified: 13 Feb 2026

The South Lakes Dental Clinic, Kents Bank Road, LA11 7EY

M 233-DPQ – Data Quality Policy, Ver 3, Folder 7, Page 1 of 2

How we check data quality

▪ We follow guidance in our Information Governance Procedures (M 217C) for the collection, storage, security, retention and deletion of personal data

▪ At every patient consultation appointment, we check with the patient that their personal data such as name, date of birth and other patient details in their clinical record is correct

▪ Whenever we carry out email marketing, we check for email bounces and delete those personal details

▪ Each year, we review the data requests that we have had from people and make sure that the correct procedure has been followed

▪ If there is a duplicate patient record, we follow the practice procedure to remove/combine duplicates

Caldicott Principles

We follow the eight Caldicott principles applying to the handling of patient-identifiable information, which are:

Justify the purpose(s) for using confidential information
Use confidential information only when it is necessary
Use the minimum necessary confidential information
Access to confidential information should be on a strict need-to-know basis
Everyone with access to confidential information should be aware of their responsibilities
Understand and comply with the law
The duty to share information for individual care is as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality
Inform patients and service users about how their confidential information is used

Training

The Practice Manager, Jane Symon, is responsible for training all staff on the importance of the accuracy of any data they input and of always checking patients’ details. Information governance and data security training is provided during annual practice meetings.

Review

This policy is reviewed annually.

THE SOUTH LAKES DENTAL CLINIC

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