PRIVACY POLICY

Our privacy commitment

The Veterinary Centre is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This policy (together with our Terms and Conditions and any other documents referred to in it) sets out the basis on which any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us, will be processed by us. As a veterinary practice, we have what is known as a legitimate interest in holding certain details of our patients and clients. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it.

You consent, by using our Website, registering with us and by using our veterinary services that personal information you provide will be held on a secure database. As we require this data to treat your animals and for legal reasons, it is necessary for the performance of the contract with you, we consider (under section 3, article 6 of the GDPR regulations) that formal, written consent is not required to record this data.

We are fully committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, we have in place a suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedure to safeguard any information that we hold.

The Veterinary Centre may alter this policy from time to time, please check to ensure that you are happy with any changes.

What we collect

• Name and address.
• Contact information, including email address and phone number.
• Pet details, including name, breed, age and, if relevant, any previous veterinary history.
• Pet insurance details.
• Any other information which is reasonably required to carry out our service to you.

When we may request this information

• On initial registration.
• When making an appointment.
• When submitting an insurance claim for your pet.
• At the request of a repeat prescription.
• When registering for a health plan.
• If you send an enquiry to us.
• At any other time as reasonably required.

Why we request this information

In order to understand your needs and to enable us to provide a quality service, we need to collect and store personal information from you. We may collect data for the following reasons:

• To treat your pet(s) and maintain accurate medical records.
• To ensure that your pet’s healthcare is kept up to date by sending reminders for preventative treatment, via text, email or post.
• To contact you about your pet, your account or credit status, where required.
• To obtain any previous veterinary history from another practice.
• To process insurance claims on your behalf.
• To process payment for any services provided.
• To book appointments.
• To ask you to complete client satisfaction surveys to help us offer the best service we can
• To let you know about changes to our services.
• To occasionally send you a Newsletter of inform you of any promotional offers that we feel you may benefit from.

We may send you SMS, post or emails to contact you about treatments we consider your pet(s) may require in the best interests of their health, for example, vaccination reminders. We may also send you health care advice for your pet(s). We consider the above communication vital to maintaining the health of your pet(s) and that it is required for us to offer the level of service we strive for. We, therefore, do not consider it necessary to ask you to opt into such communications.

We will also automatically collect data such as dates and times of your visits to our website.

Who may we sometimes share your data with?

We may share your personal information with third parties to help us to provide our service to you. We do not sell or lease your data.

The following is a list of the types of organisation with whom we share your information:

• Law enforcement agencies if requested in order to prevent any unlawful activity.
• Your pet’s insurance provider, if applicable.
• Pet microchipping companies.
• Other veterinary practices, including referral centres.
• External laboratories.
• Our database provider, if necessary for resolving any technical enquiries.
• Organisations which support us with the email or text communications we deliver to you.
• Relevant drug companies may require pet information for statistical or technical enquiries.
• Debt collection agencies assisting us with unpaid debt.

How we protect your information?

Your data is stored securely on our behalf by VETIT, our Practice Management software providers, as data processor and joint data controller. We endeavour to keep your data current and accurate. Please help us keep your data up to date by contacting us if there are any changes. We have in place strict security procedures for the storage and disclosure of your information to prevent unauthorised access.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to us via our website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

Protecting your security

We may permit authorised third parties to use your data to provide you with information relating to the health of your pet. You may be contacted by post, telephone, email or SMS.

We may use for the purpose of promotional, marketing and publicity purposes in any media worldwide any comments or feedback (excluding personal data) which you post publicly or provide to the practice, without notice or without any fee being paid, once consent has been given.

How long we keep your information

We store your personal information as long as reasonably required to provide our service to you.

• We shall hold your information whilst you are a registered client.
• We shall continue to hold your personal information for a reasonable period even if you are no longer a client in order to comply with the requirements of our insurers and our professional regulator.

Social media, website and cookies

We may sometimes engage with you through social media channels.

• When we do so, we may see the personal information which you have shared with the social media platform, but we do not collect or store this information.
• If you communicate with us through a social media platform, for example Facebook messenger, we may retain your messages with the messaging platform for a reasonable period.
• If you publicly share any information with us through social media, please note that we are unable to control who sees that information.

Rights

You have a right to access the personal data about you that is held by us. To obtain a copy of the personal information please apply in writing to the practice. The request will be passed onto our data controller and will be made available within 30 days. You also have a right to request we delete your data. As your data has to be kept by us for legal reasons, we would consult our professional advisers regards any legal requirements to keep any data and inform you of their decision. Legally we have 30 days to exercise this.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

Any changes we may make to our Privacy Policy in the future will be posted on the ‘Privacy Policy page’ on our website and, where appropriate, notified to you by email. If you have any queries about data protection, please contact us on 01925 977622.