North London Dental Group

In providing your dental care and treatment, we will ask for information about you and your health.
Occasionally, we may receive information from other providers who have been involved in providing your care. This privacy notice describes the type of personal information we hold, why we hold it and what we do with it.

About us

We are:
Barnet Dental Practice, 37-39 East Barnet Road, New Barnet, Herts, EN4 8RN
Enfield Dental Practice, 253 Hertford Road, Enfield, Middlesex, EN3 5JL
Stevenage Dental Practice, 32-34 Market Place, Stevenage, Herts, SG1 1DB

The practice owners are responsible for keeping secure the information about you that we hold. Those
at the practice who have access to your information include dentists and other dental professionals
involved with your care and treatment, and the reception staff responsible for the management and
administration of the practice.

Our data protection officers, ensure that the practice complies with data protection requirements to
ensure that we collect, use, store and dispose of your information responsibly. You can contact your
data protection officer at the practice you attend.

Information that we hold
We can only keep and use information for specific reasons set out in the law. If we want to keep and
use information about your health, we can only do so in particular circumstances. Below, we describe
the information we hold and why, and the lawful basis for collecting and using it.

Contact details
We hold personal information about you including your name, date of birth, national insurance number,
NHS number, address, telephone number and email address. This information allows us to fulfil our
contract with you to provide appointments. We will also use the information to send you reminders and
recall appointments as we have a legitimate interest to ensure your continuing care and to make you
aware of our services.

Dental records
We hold information about your dental and general health, including

Clinical records made by dentists and other dental professionals involved with your care and
treatment
– X-rays, clinical photographs, digital scans of your mouth and teeth, and study models
– Medical and dental histories
– Treatment plans and consent
– Notes of conversations with you about your care
– Dates of your appointments
– Details of any complaints you have made and how these complaints were dealt with
– Correspondence with you and other health professionals or institutions.

We collect and use this information to allow us to fulfil our contract with you to discuss your treatment
options and provide dental care that meets your needs. We also use this information for the legitimate
interest of ensuring the quality of the treatment we provide.

Financial information
We hold information about the fees we have charged, the amounts you have paid and some payment
details. This information forms part of our contractual obligation to you to provide dental care and allows
us to meet legal financial requirements.
Where your dental care is provided under the terms of the NHS, we are required to complete
statutory forms to allow payments to be processed. This is an NHS requirement.

How we use your information
To provide you with the dental care and treatment that you need, we require up-to-date and accurate
information about you.
We will share your information with the NHS in connection with your dental treatment.
We may contact you to conduct patient surveys or to find out if you are happy with the treatment you
received for quality control purposes.
We will seek your preference for how we contact you about your dental care. Our usual method is by
letter.
Sharing information
Your information is normally used only by those working at the practice but there may be instances
where we need to share it – for example, with:

-Your doctor
– The hospital or community dental services or other health professionals caring for you
– Specialist dental or medical services to which we may refer you
– NHS payment authorities
– The Department for Work and Pensions and its agencies, where you are claiming exemption or
remission from NHS charges
– Dental laboratories
– Debt collection agencies
– Private dental schemes of which you are a member.

We will only disclose your information on a need-to-know basis and will limit any information that we
share to the minimum necessary. We will let you know in advance if we send your medical information
to another medical provider and we will give you the details of that provider at that time.

In certain circumstances or if required by law, we may need to disclose your information to a third party
not connected with your health care, including HMRC or other law enforcement or government
agencies.

Keeping your information safe
We store your personal information securely on our practice computer system and in a manual filing
system. Your information cannot be accessed by those who do not work at the practice; only those
working at the practice have access to your information. They understand their legal responsibility to
maintain confidentiality and follow practice procedures to ensure this.

We take precautions to ensure security of the practice premises, the practice filing systems and
computers.

We use high-quality specialist dental software to record and use your personal information safely and
effectively. Our computer system has a secure audit trail and we back-up information routinely.
We keep your records for 10 years after the date of your last visit to the practice or until you reach the
age of 25 years, whichever is the longer. At your request, we will delete non-essential information (for
example some contact details) before the end of this period.

Access to your information and other rights
You have a right to access the information that we hold about you and to receive a copy. We do not
usually charge you for copies of your information; if we pass on a charge, we will explain the reasons.
You can also request us to
– Correct any information that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete. If we have disclosed that
information to a third party, we will let them know about the change.
– Erase some of the information we hold. For legal reasons, we may be unable to erase certain
information (for example, information about your dental treatment). However, we can, if you ask us
to, delete some contact details and other non-clinical information.
– Stop using your information – for example, sending you reminders for appointments or information
about our service. Even if you have given us consent to send you marketing information, you may
withdraw that consent at any time.
– Stop using information if you believe the information is inaccurate or you believe we are using your
information illegally.
– Supply your information electronically to another dentist.
If we are relying on your consent to use your personal information for a particular purpose, you may
withdraw your consent at any time and we will stop using your information for that purpose.
To withdraw your consent please contact the data protection officer at the practice you attend.

If you do not agree
If you do not wish us to use your personal information as described, you should discuss the matter with
your dentist. If you object to the way that we collect and use your information, we may not be able to
continue to provide your dental care.

If you have any concerns about how we use your information and you do not feel able to discuss it with
your dentist or anyone at the practice, you should contact The Information Commissioner’s Office
(ICO), Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF (0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745).

Date: May 2018