Judith Costa BSc
Podiatrist
Chiropodist

07802 887919

How we process and protect your data. You have a right to expect that information that you supply and details of your treatment are held in confidence.  Only the people involved in the provision of your care (Judith Costa) will have access to your records and then only in so far as it is necessary to fulfil their duties to you. Data protection is important.  We process your data (information you provide to us, together with our medical observations and treatment records), with your consent, to allow us to provide podiatry and related services to you.

How is my data stored? Our primary medical records are all held in paper form. 

However, we do use computer systems for:

• appointment bookings;
• invoicing and payments;
• responding to email queries from patients;
• corresponding with other health professionals (see below); and
• storing photographs (where appropriate – these are only taken in the clinic, with your knowledge, as part of monitoring your treatment progress).

All of these electronic files are held securely in a password protected environment. Please let us know if you require further information or have any concerns regarding this.We will retain your details for a number of years after your last visit (currently eight years or, for minors, until the age of 25) .

Keeping information up to date We are required to keep your records up to date and they should not contain any inaccurate information.  Please help us with this by telling us if any of your contact details change (e.g. address, phone number, email address) or by speaking to the podiatrist at the start of your treatment if there are any medical changes of note (e.g. changes in medication, or if you recently suffered from an issue that would typically be recorded on the medical history form).Similarly, we will regularly check with you that you remain comfortable with our data protection procedures and may ask you to update your consent form to ensure our records are appropriate.

Do you share my data with anyone else? Many of our patients are keen to receive joined up healthcare advice wherever possible and so ask us to share information with other health professionals (e.g. their GP, osteopath, physiotherapist).  We are very happy to do this and have seen a number of cases where this has been of great benefit to the patient.  However, this will only be done on the explicit instruction of you, the patient, and you may change these instructions at any time. You may also ask us to share medical information with other family members or carers who might assist you.  Please let us know if you would like us to do this.  Your podiatrist will assume you are happy for anyone who joins you in the treatment room to hear full details of your condition and the proposed treatment.Very occasionally it may be necessary to share information with other health professionals, for example your GP.  This will only be done by your podiatrist when it is in your interest and in order to provide you with the appropriate level of care.  However, you can request that even in these circumstances, the information you give and details of your treatments are not to be disclosed to another healthcare professional without your prior consent.Finally, there are a limited number of other circumstances where we may be required to share your personal information outside of the practice.  

These include:

• Where disclosure is required by statute or is ordered by a court of law.
• Where disclosure to the appropriate authorities is in the wider public interest (e.g. in the prevention or prosecution of a serious crime).
• Where disclosure is necessary to pursue a bona-fide legal claim against you.

In the unlikely event that a request is received from a third party for information held on our records about you, details will not be disclosed unless you give the practice prior consent. If you wish to see your clinical notes at any stage so that you may see what information is recorded you may do so, and we will provide a copy or arrange a time for you to do this within 28 days.  There will however be an administrative fee if you want a copy.

Appointment bookings As part of our service, we will typically text (or email) you in advance of your appointment to confirm and remind you of your booking.  This text will be made to the number (or email address) you provide. We do not share these email addresses with any other companies (or individuals).

Clinical audit  Information on your records may also be used for the purpose of clinical audit. This is essential to the provision of good care and involves reviewing the care that you have received so as to ensure that future care is safe and to the standard which you could reasonably expect.  There is no risk of information about you being made public as a result of a clinical audit, as all data is anonymous.However, you have a right to object to your records being used in a clinical audit.  If you wish to object please inform the podiatrist so that measures can be put in place to stop your records being used for audit purposes.

Your rights Under the new data protection legislation, you have the following individual rights:

Right to be informed 

Right of access

Right to rectification

Right to restrict processing

Right to data portability

Right to object

Rights related to automated decision making 

We hope this note makes clear how we are using your data, and further information about individual rights is available on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.  However, please speak to Judith Costa if you have any questions.