Privacy Policy
 

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Medical Weight Care’s Privacy Policy

 

Medical Weight Care is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. 

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Summary of our Privacy Policy

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This policy is designed to provide you with a detailed overview of how we manage your data. It will outline the responsibilities Medical Weight Care has with regards to collecting information from you and how that information may be used. In addition, it will outline your rights and how you can exercise them, in relation to personal information. If you are a patient of Medical Weight Care, it is important to note that if you opt out of us contacting us for one or more of the reasons outlined below, we will still need to contact you regarding any clinical matters.

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Your Personal Data

Personal data refers to and relates to an individual.

Sensitive data, also referred to as Special Categories of personal information, may also be collected and used (e.g., information relating to your health, mental or physical). Examples include; if you are a patient, we will need to use information about your health in order to treat you; or prior to booking an appointment and becoming one of our patients we may ask you specific questions about your health.

If you provide personal information to us about other individuals (this includes information regarded as a special category such as medical or financial information) you must inform the individual about the contents of this Privacy Policy, we will process their information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

If you amend data which we already hold about you please note that we will update our systems to reflect the amendments and we may keep records of past data.

 

Personal Information

As a Medical Weight Care patient, we will hold personal information about you which may include, but not be limited to, the following:

• Name

• Contact details including postal address, email address and contact numbers (e.g., Home, mobile or work phone numbers)

• Financial information (e.g., card details used for payments to us)

• Emergency contact details

• Background medical details, e.g., GP details, medical reports from other health professionals. (Please note we will only contact your GP and/or other medical professionals dealing with your care if we have received prior consent from you).

 

Special Categories Personal Information

As a Medical Weight Care patient, we will hold information relating to your medical assessments and treatments. By law, this information is defined as a special category of personal data and as such it must be handled more sensitively.

Special categories of personal information we may hold about you include, but are not limited to, the following:

Details of your physical and mental health (current or past). This is not limited to the care you receive or need at Medical Weight Care and may include information you, or someone on your behalf (e.g. GP) has provided to us regarding any care you have received/ are receiving from other healthcare providers such as GPs, dentists or hospitals (private and/or NHS).

• Details of the services you have received from us

• Details of your nationality, race and/ or ethnicity

• Details of your religion

• Details of any genetic data or biometric data relating to you

• Data concerning your sex life and/ or sexual orientation

The confidentiality of your medical information is of paramount importance. We make every effort to prevent unauthorised access to, and use of, information relating to your health, current or past, physical or mental.

Medical Weight Care complies with UK data protection law, including the Data Protection Act 2018, and all applicable medical confidentiality guidelines issued by professional bodies (e.g. The GMC (General Medical Council) and NMC (Nursing and Midwifery Council).

The Data Protection Act 1998 was replaced by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and a new Data Protection Act on 25th May 2018.

 

How do we collect your information?

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Information may be collected directly from you when:

You correspond with us via email, letter, telephone (incoming and outgoing calls may be recorded) or social media.

You contact us via our website.  

You complete one of our questionnaires  either online or in paper form.

You attend any appointment with us.

You enter into a contract with us for the provision of healthcare services.

You visit our website.

 

Personal information we hold may be collected from a number of different sources including, but not limited to:

• GPs

• Dentists

• Other hospitals, both NHS and private

• Mental health providers

• Commissioners of healthcare services

• Clinicians (including their medical secretaries)

 

From other healthcare organisations:

Our patients will usually receive healthcare from other organisations in addition to Medical Weight Care, and so in order to provide you with the best treatment possible we may have to collect personal information about you from other organisations. These may include medical records which include information regarding your diagnosis, clinic and hospital visits and medicines administered from your GP and other providers.

 

From Third Parties

As detailed in the previous section, it may be necessary to seek information from other healthcare organisations. We may also collect information about you from third parties when:

• You are referred to us for the provision of services

• We liaise with your current or former health professional

• We liaise with your family

• We liaise with your insurance policy provider

• We deal with experts (including medical experts) and other service providers about services you have received or are receiving from us

• We deal with NHS health service bodies about services you have received or are receiving from us

• We liaise with credit reference agencies

• We liaise with debt collection agencies

• We liaise with Government agencies, including the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and HMRC

 

How will we communicate with you?

We may communicate with you via telephone, SMS, WhatsApp, email and post, providing you have provided us with these details. If we contact you via telephone and you are not available we may leave a message on your answerphone machine.

We may communicate with you by unencrypted email and/or SMS in order to provide you with updates and reminders in relation to your healthcare. These emails and SMS messages may include basic administration information and appointment information.

We may communicate with you by email to provide you with information regarding your medical records and/ or invoicing information.

If we have your mobile number and/or email address, we may contact you regarding patient surveys which are for the purpose of monitoring your clinical progress and improving our service. They are not a form of marketing.

Please note that, although providing your mobile number and email address and stating a preference to be communicated by a particular method will be taken as an affirmative confirmation that you are happy for us to contact you in that manner, we are not relying on your consent to process your personal data in order to correspond with you about your treatment. As set out further below, processing your personal data for those purposes is justified on the basis that it is necessary to provide you with healthcare services.

 

What Surveys may we send you?

As detailed above, we may contact you requesting feedback or asking you to participate in surveys pre- and post-treatment at Medical Weight Care. The requests will largely be sent via email, WhatsApp or in the post. These requests are not a form of marketing and are not intended to sell you any further products or services. Their purpose is to gather information relating to your experience of Medical Weight Care, for the purposes of improving the quality and safety of our services.

It is necessary for us to process your personal data in order to contact you with these surveys, on the basis of our appropriate business needs and to improve the quality of the healthcare services we offer.

Participation in the surveys is entirely voluntary.

In addition, we may also contact you requesting participation in questionnaires which aim to monitor the outcomes of your treatment. Again, these surveys are not a form of marketing. They are called Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs).

 

What are the purposes for which your information is used?

We may use your data, i.e. process your information, for a number of different purposes. If we use your data, we must have a legal justification to do so. The particular justification will depend on the purpose of the proposed use of your data. When the information that we process is classed as “special category of personal information”, we must have a specific additional legal justification in order to use it as proposed.

Generally, we will rely on the following legal justifications, or ‘grounds’:

Taking steps at your request so that you can enter into a contract with Medical Weight Care to receive healthcare services from us.

For the purposes of providing you with healthcare pursuant to a contract between you and Medical Weight Care. We will rely on this for activities such as supporting your medical treatment or care.

We have an appropriate business need to process your personal information and such business need does not cause harm to you. We will rely on this for activities such as quality assurance, maintaining our business records, developing and improving our products and services and monitoring outcomes.

We have a legal or regulatory obligation to use such personal information.

We need to use such personal information to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights

You have provided your consent to our use of your personal information.

Note that failure to provide your information further to a contractual requirement with us may mean that we are unable to set you up as a patient or facilitate the provision of your healthcare on Medical Weight Care’s system.

 

Appropriate business needs

One legal ground for processing personal data is that we do this in pursuit of legitimate interest and those interests are not overridden by your privacy rights. Where we refer to use for our appropriate business needs, we are relying on this legal ground.

Special categories of personal information includes, but is not limited to, information about your:

• Health

• Sex Life

• Sexual Orientation

• Ethnicity

• Political opinions

• Religious or philosophical beliefs

• Genetic or biometric information

 

The right to object to other uses of your personal data

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You have a range of rights in respect of your personal data, as set out in detail in the section entitled “your rights”. This includes the right to object to Medical Weight Care using your personal information in a particular way (such as sharing that information with third parties), and we must stop using it in that way unless specific exceptions apply. This includes, for example, if it is necessary to defend a legal claim brought against us, or it is otherwise necessary for the purposes of your ongoing treatment.

We have outlined our legal grounds for each of our processing purposes below:

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Purpose 1: To set you up as a patient on Medical Weight Care’s systems

As is common with most businesses, we have to carry out necessary checks in order for you to become a patient. These include standard background checks, which we cannot perform without using your personal information.

Legal ground: Taking the necessary steps so that you can enter into a contract with us for the delivery of healthcare.

Additional legal ground for special categories of personal information: The use is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest.

 

Purpose 2: To provide you with healthcare services

Legal Grounds: Providing you with healthcare and related services

Fulfilling our contract with you for the delivery of healthcare

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

We need to use the data in order to provide healthcare services to you.

The use is necessary to protect your vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent.

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Purpose 3: For account settlement purposes

We will use your personal information in order to ensure that your account and billing is fully accurate and up-to-date

Legal Grounds:

Providing you with healthcare and related services

Fulfilling our contract with you for the delivery of healthcare

Our having appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

We need to use the data in order to provide healthcare services to you

The use is necessary in order for us to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights

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Purpose 4: For medical audit/ research purposes

Clinical Audit

Medical Weight Care may process your personal data for the purposes of local clinical audit – i.e. an audit carried out by your direct team for the purposes of assessing outcomes for patients and identifying improvements which could be made for the future. We are able to do so on the basis of a legitimate interest and the public interest in statistical and scientific research, and with appropriate safeguards in place. You can however object to us using your personal data for this purpose by contacting our Data Protection Officer.

Medical Research

Medical Weight Care may participate in medical research and share data with ethically approved third party research organisations. We will share your personal data only to the extent that it is necessary to do so in assisting research and as permitted by law. Some research projects and/ or registries have received statutory approval such that consent may not be required in order to use your personal data. In those circumstances, your personal data will be shared on the basis that:

Legal Grounds:

We have a legitimate interest in helping with medical research and have put appropriate safeguards in place to protect your privacy

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

The processing is necessary in the public interest for statistical and scientific research purposes

In the event that consent is required then either the research organisations will obtain this from you themselves, and so any questions in that regard should be directed to them, or we will take consent from you.

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Purpose 5: Communicating with you and resolving any queries or complaints that you might have

From time to time, patients may raise queries, or even complaints, with Medical Weight Care and we take those communications very seriously. It is important that we resolve such matters fully and properly, and so we will need to use your personal information in order to do so.

Legal Grounds:

Our providing you with healthcare and other related services

Our having an appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

The use is necessary for the provision of healthcare or treatment pursuant to a contract with a health professional

The use is necessary in order for us to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights

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Purpose 6: Communicating with any other individual that you ask us to update about your care and updating other healthcare professionals about your care

In addition, other healthcare professionals or organisations may need to know about your treatment in order for them to provide you with safe and effective care, and so we may need to share your personal information with them. Further details on the third parties who may need access to your information is set out in Purpose 10.

Legal Grounds:

Our providing you with healthcare and other related services

We have a legitimate interest in ensuring that other healthcare professionals who are routinely involved in your care have a full picture of your treatment.

Additional legal ground for special categories of personal information:

We need to use the data in order to provide healthcare services to you

The use is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest under UK law

The use is necessary in order for us to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights 

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Purpose 7: Complying with our legal or regulatory obligations, and defending or exercising our legal rights

As a provider of healthcare, we are subject to a wide range of legal and regulatory responsibilities which is not possible to list fully here. We may be required by law or by regulators to provide personal information, and in which case we will have a legal responsibility to do so. From time to time, Medical Weight Care and its clinicians are also the subject of legal actions or complaints. In order to fully investigate and respond to those actions, it is necessary to assess your personal information (although only to the extent that it is necessary and relevant to the subject matter).

Legal Grounds:

The use is necessary in order for us to comply with our legal obligations

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

We need to use the data in order for others to provide informed healthcare services to you

The use is necessary for reasons of the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems

The use is necessary for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims

We are also required by law to conduct audits of health records, including medical information, for quality assurance purposes. Your personal and medical information will be treated in accordance with guidance issued by the Care Quality Commission (England), Health Inspectorate Wales and Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

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Purpose 8: Providing improved quality, training and security including conducting post treatment surveys

Quality is one of Medical Weight Care’s core values and as such we are always keen to learn from patients’ experiences in order to improve the experience for future patients. With that in mind, we will use your personal information to identify where such improvements can be made.

Legal Grounds:

Our having an appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

We need to use the data in order to manage the healthcare services we deliver, including carrying out surveys (which are not a form of marketing) in order to identify and carry out and necessary improvements. 

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Purpose 9: Managing our business operations such as maintaining accounting records, analysis of financial results, internal audit requirements, receiving professional advice (e.g. tax or legal advice)

In order to do this, we will not need to use your special categories of personal information and so we have not identified additional ground to use your information for this purpose

Legal Grounds:

Our having appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you 

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Purpose 10: Provide marketing information to you (including information about other products and services offered by selected third party partners) in accordance with preferences you have expressed on registration

As a business, we need to carry out marketing but we are mindful of your rights and expectation in that regard. As a result, we will only provide you with marketing which is relevant to our business and only where you have specifically confirmed your consent to do so.

Legal Grounds:

Our having an appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you

You have provided your consent

  

Who do we share your information with?

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Disclosures to third parties:

We may disclose your information to the third parties listed below for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. This might include:

• A doctor, nurse, carer or any other healthcare professional involved in your treatment

• Other members of support staff involved in the delivery of your care, like receptionists and porters

• Anyone that you ask us to communicate with or provide as an emergency contact, for example your next of kin or carer

• NHS organisations, including NHS Resolution, NHS England, Department of Health

• Other private sector healthcare providers

• Your GP

• Your dentist

• Third parties who assist in the administration of your healthcare, such as insurance companies

• National and other professional research/audit programmes and registries, as detailed under Purpose 4 above

• Government bodies, including the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and HMRC

• Our regulators, like the Care Quality Commission, Health Inspectorate Wales and Healthcare Improvement Scotland

• The police and other third parties where reasonably necessary for the prevention or detection of crime

• Our insurers

• Debt collection agencies

• Credit referencing agencies

• Our third party services providers such as IT suppliers, actuaries, auditors, lawyers, marketing agencies, digital platforms, document management providers and tax advisers

• Selected third parties in connection with any sale, transfer or disposal of our business

We may communicate with these third parties in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, email, post, fax and telephone.

 

What marketing activities do we carry out?

We may use your personal information to follow-up on an enquiry you’ve made or let you know of any promotions we have running. All emails that are sent to you will be tailored to you according to the information you have provided to us.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email or alternatively contact our DPO.

We will never provide your information to market research agencies.

 

How long do we keep personal information for?

We will only keep personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the relevant purposes set out in the Privacy Policy and in order to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

If you would like further information regarding the periods for which your personal information will be stored, please contact our DPO.

 

International data transfers

We (or third parties acting on our behalf) may store or process information that we collect about you in countries outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). Where we make a transfer of your personal information outside of the EEA we will take the required steps to ensure that your personal information is protected.

We will only do so to the extent that it is relevant and necessary. The United States and the EEA have in place a framework, known as Privacy Shield, to facilitate compliance with data protection obligations when transferring personal data. Privacy Shield has been assessed by the EU Commission, and deemed to provide adequate protection to personal data.

If you would like further information regarding the steps we take to safeguard your personal information, please contact the DPO using the details at the top of the page.

 

Your rights

Under data protection law you have certain rights in relation to the personal information that we hold about you. These include rights to know what information we hold about you and how it is used. You may exercise these rights at any time by contacting us using the details set out above at the bottom of the page.

There will not usually be a charge for handling a request to exercise your rights.

If we cannot comply with your request to exercise your rights we will usually tell you why.

There are some special rules about how these rights apply to health information as set out in legislation including the Data Protection Act (current and future), the General Data Protection Regulation as well as any secondary legislation which regulates the use of personal information.

If you make a large number of requests or it is clear that it is not reasonable for us to comply with a request then we do not have to respond. Alternatively, we can charge for responding.

 

Your rights include:

The right to access your personal information

You are usually entitled to a copy of the personal information we hold about you and details about how we use it.

Your information will usually be provided to you in writing, unless otherwise requested. If you have made the request electronically (eg by email) the information will be provided to you by electronic means where possible.

Please note that in some cases we may not be able to fully comply with your request, for example if your request involves the personal data of another person and it would not be fair to that person to provide it to you.

You are entitled to the following under data protection law.

Under Article 15(1) of the GDPR we must usually confirm whether we have personal information about you. If we do hold personal information about you we usually need to explain to you:

The purposes for which we use your personal information

The types of personal information we hold about you

Who your personal information has been or will be shared with, including in particular organisations based outside the EEA.

If your personal information leaves the EU, how we make sure that it is protected

Where possible, the length of time we expect to hold your personal information. If that is not possible, the criteria we use to determine how long we hold your information for

If the personal data we hold about you was not provided by you, details of the source of the information

Whether we make any decisions about you solely by computer and if so details of how those decision are made and the impact they may have on you

 

Your right to ask us to amend or delete your personal information

Your right to ask us to restrict how your personal information is used or to object to our use of your personal information

Your right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

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The right to rectification

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the information we hold about you is accurate and complete. However, if you do not believe this is the case, you can ask us to update or amend it.

 

The right to erasure (also known as the right to be forgotten)

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure that it remains accurate, and the most up-to-date version can always be found at https://www.Medical Weight Care.co.uk. In the event that there are any material changes to the manner in which your personal information is to be used then we will provide you with an updated copy of this Privacy Policy.

In some circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete the personal information we hold about you. However, there are exceptions to this right and in certain circumstances we can refuse to delete the information in question. In particular, for example, we do not have to comply with your request if it is necessary to keep your information in order to perform tasks which are in the public interest, including public health, or for the purposes of establishing, exercise or defending legal claims.

 

The right to restriction of processing

In some circumstances, we must “pause” our use of your personal data if you ask us to. We do not have to comply with all requests to restrict our use of your personal information. In particular, for example, we do not have to comply with your request if it is necessary to keep your information in order to perform tasks which are in the public interest, including public health, or for the purposes of establishing, exercise or defending legal claims.

 

The right to data portability

In some circumstances, we must transfer personal information that you have provided to us to you or (if this is technically feasible) another individual/ organisation of your choice. The information must be transferred in an electronic format.

 

The right to object to marketing

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time and we must comply with your request. You can do this by contacting the DPO.

 

The right not to be subject to automatic decisions (ie decisions that are made about you by computer alone)

You have a right to not be subject to automatic decisions (ie decisions that are made about you by computer alone) that have a legal or other significant effect on you.

Please see the section entitled “What marketing activities do we carry out?” for detail about when we may make automatic decisions about you.

If you have been subject to an automated decision and do not agree with the outcome, you can challenge the decision. More about this is explained in the section entitled “What marketing activities do we carry out?”.

 

The right to withdraw consent

In some cases we need your consent in order for our use of your personal information to comply with data protection legislation.

We have explained in the section entitled “What are the purposes for which your information is used?” where we rely on your consent in this way. Where we do this, you have the right to withdraw your consent to further use of your personal information. You can do this by contacting Medical Weight Care’s DPO whose details at the top of the page.

 

The right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office

You can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are unhappy with the way that we have dealt with a request from you to exercise any of these rights, or if you think we have not complied with our legal obligations.

More information can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website: https://ico.org.uk/

Making a complaint will not affect any other legal rights or remedies that you have.

 

Cookies

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We use cookies on this website. This means that when someone visits www.Medical Weight Care.co.uk standard internet log information and details of visitors’ behaviour patterns are collected. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the site.

We collect this information in a way which does not personally identify anyone.

Cookies are small encrypted text files that may be stored on your computer or other device by this website.

Elements of the Medical Weight Care website use cookies for the following reasons:

• To provide site usage information (Google Analytics), which will help us continue to improve and develop the products and services we offer.

• To analyse your use of our website, allowing us to identify customer preferences and improve customers experience of the website.

• So that we can better serve you when you return to our site. 

 

Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure that it remains accurate. In the event that these changes result in any material difference to the manner in which we process your personal data then we will provide you with an updated copy of the Policy.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 2 March 2024.

 

Contact

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If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact:

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Dr Vassiliki Kavadas

Medical Weight Care Ltd
Suite 4.07
Windsor House

Cornwall Road

Harrogate

HG1 2PW

 

FAO: Dr V Kavadas
info@medicalweightcare.co.uk