Privacy policy
We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use the information that we collect about you lawfully in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 & subsequent revisions thereof including the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 (GDPR).
About us
Alcombe Veterinary Surgery is a Veterinary Practice registered as a company in England and Wales under company number 03733238 Alcombe Veterinary Practice Ltd and is the Data Controller.
We are registered for VAT purposes with the registration number 752298217.
Organisations are permitted to process data if they have a legal basis for doing so. Alcombe Veterinary Surgery processes data on the basis that as your chosen veterinary surgery, we have a legitimate interest which may include some or all of the following reasons:
- To enable us to provide our veterinary services and to provide you with the best possible service that we can
- To register you and your pets details on our practice management system
- To record your pets health and treatment history
- To communicate with you for administrative purposes
- To send reminders in connection with your pet's health program eg appointments, vaccinations ( ‘Service Communications’)
- To advise you of any offers we may have
- To understand your needs and listen to your feedback via client surveys
- Where necessary in a relation to a contract or agreement which you have entered into- which may include joining our Pet Healthcare Plan or making a Payment Plan
We will not email you unless you have given us your consent and will give you the chance to refuse any email from us in the future. You can choose if/how you would like to receive these communications – please talk to one of our team if you would like to change how you receive Service Communications
The type of information that is collected includes:
- Your name so that we can identify you and personalise our communications with you
- Address so that we can identify you , register your animal with our Practice,send reminders, correspondence and information about our services directly to you and send information about local animal health issues
- Telephone number(s) so that we can contact you about your animal, send reminders about your appointments, vaccinations, flea or worming treatments and/pr correspondence about our service and animal health issues
- Email address so that we can contact you about your animal, send reminders about your appointments, vaccinations, flea or worming treatments and /or correspondence about our service and animal health issues
- Your pet(s) details so we can give appropriate care
- Bank, debit or credit card details – so we can receive payment for the services we provide if applicable
- Insurance policy number – so that we can communicate with your animal insurance provider if applicable
Please remember to let the Practice team know if any of the above information changes as soon as possible, so that we have up to date records and we will also ask you to confirm that your records are up to date on a regular basis.
We will never collect sensitive information about you without your explicit consent and will hold your personal information securely in line with our own policy.
We may use your email address to contact you and you may unsubscribe or request that we do not send you any further information by sending us an email requesting that you are removed from future mailings.
Data retention
We will keep your personal information for as long as you are a client of our Practice and thereafter for as long as any legal claim may be made against the Practice or our colleagues and for as long as is required to comply with our legal and regulatory requirements including the HMRC & RCVS.
Sharing your information
We are required to share your personal information in certain circumstances, for example, to ensure we are able to provide you with services obtain payment or correspond with your insurance provider. In each case we will only share the data necessary for the purpose and it will only be in relation to the specified purpose. Each third party is required to have in place comparable data security measures and to be fully compliant with the terms of the General Data Protection Regulations.
Who do we share information with and why
Referral Practices; when we refer an animal to a referral hospital or specialist we need to share relevant information to arrange appointments, tests, treatments and services.
Laboratories and Animal Crematorium – so that we can arrange tests, treatments and services and obtain results on your behalf.
Your Insurer: so that we can obtain permission to perform certain investigations and treatments at their expense. To arrange payment for investigations and treatments provided.
Moving Practice: If you need or decide to move to a new Practice we will provide a copy of of your animals’ records to the new Practice when requested. If you do not want your records transferred, please speak to a Practice team member.
Banks and Payment Service providers: so we can deal with payments for appointments, services, treatments and goods provided. To make refunds.
Law enforcement Agencies: If we receive a request in writing from a law enforcement agency, we may be required to provide your personal information.
Debt Collection Agencies: If you fall behind with payments for the services we provide, we may engage a debt collection agency to recover the debt on our behalf.
Credit reference and Fraud Prevention Agencies: We may share your personal information with and obtain information about you from credit reference agencies or fraud prevention agencies.
Email providers, printers and mailing houses: so that we can send you reminders, administrative information relating to the way we provide services to you and marketing communications if you have consented to receiving them.
In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets. If Alcombe Veterinary Surgery or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, the personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
Except as set out in the limited circumstances above, we will not sell, rent, lease or transfer your personal information to any other person or company without your prior consent.
How we protect your information: Data integrity and security
As part of the service we offer to you, the information you provide to us is stored electronically within our Practice management system database. All computer files- including emails, backups and memory sticks- containing personal data are password protected with access being limited to ‘need to know’ individuals.Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to duty of confidentiality.
We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach as required by current legislation.
Your rights
The General Data Protection Regulation grants all data subjects the following rights without charge. These include the right to:
- Fair processing of information and transparency over how we use your use Personal Information;
- Access your Personal Information and to certain other supplementary information that this Privacy Notice is already designed to address;
- Require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold;
- Require the erasure of Personal Information concerning you in certain situations;
- Receive the Personal Information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations;
- Object at any time to processing of Personal Information concerning you for direct marketing;
- Object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you;
- Object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your Personal Information;
- Otherwise restrict our processing of your Personal Information in certain circumstances.
For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.
Changes to our Privacy policy
We will keep our privacy policy under regular review and we publish any updates in Practice or on this website. This privacy policy was last updated in May 2018.
Contact us
If you have any queries about data protection, our privacy policy or the information we hold about you, please call the office on 020 85674636 or email us:alcombe@aol.com or write to us at the following address:
Alcombe Veterinary Surgery
160 Northfield Avenue
Ealing London
W13 9SB
