Privacy Policy

The information I collect from you

As your Acupuncturist, I need to collect personal information about your health in order to provide you with the best possible treatment. I will collect information from you about your symptoms, your general health history, your name & address, your date of birth & your current GP practise. I will also record symptom changes and new information at each subsequent treatment. This information will be hand written onto a set of paper notes with your name and address & reason for coming to see me written on the front page.

Where are the notes held?

These paper notes are held in a locked filing cabinet at my home and no other person has access to the key. I have a legal obligation to keep them for 7 years after your course of treatments has completed. On the day of your appointment I carry your notes to the clinic in a locked file carry case.

Who sees the notes?

Your notes will only be seen by me. No other person will have access to your notes unless you specifically request, in writing, that another practitioner or person has access to them.

Your rights regarding your notes.

You have a right to see your notes at any time and you have a right to request changes if you notice any factual errors or you can request erasure of information. However you are not able to request that the notes be destroyed before the legal 7 year period is complete.

Your mobile phone number

Your mobile phone number is stored on my mobile phone so that I can respond to your texts and calls easily and quickly regarding appointment changes or matters to do with your treatment and aftercare. Any personal information sent by text will be deleted immediately after being read. My phone is password protected.

Your e-mail address

Your e-mail address is stored on my yahoo e-mail account. I will only use your e-mail address to send you information about your appointment or relevant information about your health and recovery whilst you are receiving treatments. I will not send you marketing e-mails unless you have subscribed to my mailing list and I will never share your e-mail address with any other party. My e-mail account is password protected. If you have subscribed to my newsletter your e-mail address is also held within my Mailchimp account which is password protected.

Duty of Care

I will not pass your contact details onto anybody else unless, in my professional opinion, I believe you are at severe risk to yourself or others. In this very rare situation, as your practitioner, I have a duty of care to pass on your contact details to the relevant organisation who can give you the support you need.

Covid 19 Track and Trace

With the government’s current ‘track & trace’ system, if I am diagnosed with Covid19 within 48hrs of you coming to see me, I will need to pass on your contact details so that any possible spread of the disease can be controlled.  I will inform you of this before each appointment and gain your consent before treatment.

Who to contact if you have any concerns about how your information is being processed

I Barbara Cushnie am registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and am the person you need to contact if you would like access to your notes at any time or are unhappy about how any of your information is being stored or handled. Please don’t hesitate to contact me on 07929851976 if you have any concerns at anytime. Alternatively you can contact the ICO directly on 0303 123 1113.

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Website Privacy Policy

What Is This Privacy Policy For?

This privacy policy is for this website barbaracushnie.co.uk served by Barbara Cushnie and governs the privacy of its users who choose to use it. 

The policy sets out the different areas where user privacy is concerned and outlines the obligations & requirements of the users, the website and website owners. Furthermore the way this website processes, stores and protects user data and information will also be detailed within this policy. 

For more information about our privacy practices, please email us at richard.marsden42@gmail.com.

The Website 

This website and its owners take a proactive approach to user privacy and ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect the privacy of its users throughout their visiting experience. This website complies to all UK national laws and requirements for user privacy. 

What Personal Data We Collect and Why We Collect It  

Comments 

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. 

An anonymised string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment. 

Where We Send Your Comment Data 

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service. 

Media 

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.