Professor Ghassan Alusi, Consultant ENT Head & Neck Surgeon

Introduction

  1. This Privacy Policy sets out details of the information that Alusi-ENT Limited (the “Company”, “we” or “us”), may collect from you and how that information may be used. Please take your time to read this Privacy Policy carefully.
  • 2.In the event that you have any queries, comments or concerns in respect of the manner in which I have used, or potentially will use, your personal information then you should contact Mr Ghassan Alusi directly on either 02071172437 or by email secretary@alusi-ent.com

Your personal data

  1. Alusi-ENT Limited is Data Controller in respect of your personal information which the Company holds about you.  This will mainly relate to your medical treatment but will be likely to also include other information such as financial data in relation to billing. Alusi-ENT Limited must comply with the data protection legislation and relevant guidance when handling your personal information.
  • 2.Alusi-ENT Limited will process your data in accordance with the law, the principles of this Privacy Policy and to the extent that it is necessary to do so.    

What personal information does Alusi-ENT Limited collect and use from patients?

  1. Alusi-ENT Limited will use “special categories of personal information” (previously known as "sensitive personal data") about you, such as information relating to your physical and mental health.
  • 2.If you provide personal information to Alusi-ENT Limited about other individuals (including medical or financial information) you should inform the individual about the contents of this Privacy Policy.  I will also process such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. 
  • 3.In addition, you should note that in the event you amend data which Alusi-ENT Limited already holds about you then Alusi-ENT Limited will update our systems to reflect the amendments.  Our systems will continue to store historical data.

Personal information

  1. As one of Alusi-ENT Limited’s patients, the personal information Alusi-ENT Limited holds about you may include the following:
  • Name
  • Contact details, such as postal address, email address and telephone number (including mobile number)
  • Financial information, such as credit card details used to pay us and insurance policy details
  • Occupation
  • Emergency contact details, including next of kin
  • Background referral details

Special Categories Personal Information

  1. As one of Alusi-ENT Limited’s patients, Alusi-ENT Limited will hold information relating to your medical treatment which is known as a special category of personal data under the law, meaning that it must be handled even more sensitively.  This may include the following:
  • Details of your current or former physical or mental health, including information about any healthcare you have received from other healthcare providers such as GPs, dentists or hospitals (private and/or NHS), which may include details of clinic and hospital visits, as well as medicines administered.
  • Details of services you have received from me
  • Details of your nationality, race and/or ethnicity
  • Details of your religion
  • Details of any genetic data or biometric data relating to you

From 25 May 2018, the current Data Protection Act will be replaced by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and a new Data Protection Act. All uses of your information will comply with the GDPR and the new Data Protection Act from that date onwards

How does Alusi-ENT Limited collect your information?

  1. Alusi-ENT Limited may collect personal information and medical records 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
  • Other clinicians (including their medical secretaries)

Medical records include information about your diagnosis, clinic and hospital visits and medicines administered.

Directly from you

  1. Information may be collected directly from you when:
    1. You submit a query to me including by email
    2. You correspond with me by letter, email, telephone

From third parties

  1. As detailed in the previous section, it is often necessary to seek information from other healthcare organisations. Alusi-ENT Limited may also collect information about you from third parties when:
    1. You are referred to Alusi-ENT Limited for the provision of services including healthcare services
    2. Alusi-ENT Limited liaises with your current or former employer, health professional or other treatment or benefit provider
    3. Alusi-ENT Limited liaises with your family
    4. Alusi-ENT Limited liaises with your insurance policy provider
    5. Alusi-ENT Limited deals with experts (including medical experts) and other service providers about services you have received or are receiving from me
    6. Alusi-ENT Limited deals with NHS health service bodies about services you have received or are receiving 
    7. Alusi-ENT Limited liaises with credit reference agencies
    8. Alusi-ENT Limited liaises with debt collection agencies
    9. Alusi-ENT Limited liaises with Government agencies, including the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and HMRC

How will Alusi-ENT Limited communicate with you?

  1. Alusi-ENT Limited may communicate with you in a range of ways, including by telephone, SMS, email, and / or post.  If Alusi-ENT Limited contacts you using the telephone number(s) which you have provided (landline and/or mobile), and you are not available which results in the call being directed to a voicemail and/or answering service, Alusi-ENT Limited may leave a voice message on your voicemail and/or answering service as appropriate and including only sufficient basic details to enable you to identify who the call is from, very limited detail as to the reason for the call and how to call Alusi-ENT Limited back. 
  • 2.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, Alusi-ENT Limited is 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 service.

What are the purposes for which your information is used?

Alusi-ENT Limited may 'process' your information for a number of different purposes, which is essentially the language used by the law to mean using your data. Each time Alusi-ENT Limited uses your data Alusi-ENT Limited 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 a “special category of personal information”, Alusi-ENT Limited must have a specific additional legal justification in order to use it as proposed.

Appropriate business needs

  1. One legal ground for processing personal data is where Alusi-ENT Limited does so in pursuit of legitimate interests and those interests are not overridden by your privacy rights. 

The right to object to other uses of your personal data

You have a range of rights in respect of your personal data. This includes the right to object to Alusi-ENT Limited using your personal information in a particular way (such as sharing that information with third parties), and Alusi-ENT Limited 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 Alusi-ENT Limited, or it is otherwise necessary for the purposes of your ongoing treatment. 

Purpose 1: To provide you with healthcare and related services

  1. Clearly, the reason you come to Alusi-ENT Limited is to provide you with healthcare, and so Alusi-ENT Limited has to use your personal information for that purpose. 
  1. Legal grounds:
    1. Providing you with healthcare and related services
    2. Fulfilling Alusi-ENT Limited’s contract with you for the delivery of healthcare
  • 2.Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:
  1. Alusi-ENT Limited needs to use the data in order to provide healthcare services to you
  2. The use is necessary to protect your vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent

Purpose 2: For account settlement purposes

  1. Alusi-ENT Limited will use your personal information in order to ensure that your account and billing is fully accurate and up-to-date 
  1. Legal grounds:
    1. Alusi-ENT Limited providing you healthcare and other related services
    2. Fulfilling Alusi-ENT Limited’s contract with you for the delivery of healthcare
    3. Alusi-ENT Limited having an appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you 
    4. Your consent
  1. Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:
    1. Alusi-ENT Limited needs to use the data in order to provide healthcare services to you
    2. The use is necessary in order for me to establish, exercise or defend Alusi-ENT Limited’s legal rights
    3. Your consent

Purpose 3: Communicating with you and resolving any queries or complaints that you might have. 

  1. From time to time, patients may raise queries, or even complaints, with Alusi-ENT Limited.  It is important that Alusi-ENT Limited is able to resolve such matters fully and properly and so Alusi-ENT Limited will need to use your personal information in order to do so.
  1. Legal grounds:
    1. Providing you with healthcare and other related services
    2. Having an appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you 
  1. Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:
    1. The use is necessary for the provision of healthcare or treatment pursuant to a contract with a health professional
    2. The use is necessary in order for Alusi-ENT Limited to establish, exercise or defend Alusi-ENT Limited’s legal rights

Purpose 4: Communicating with any other individual that you ask us to update about your care and updating other healthcare professionals about your care.

  1. 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 Alusi-ENT Limited may need to share your personal information with them. 
  1. Legal grounds:
    1. Providing you with healthcare and other related services
    2. Alusi-ENT Limited has a legitimate interest in ensuring that other healthcare professionals who are routinely involved in your care have a full picture of your treatment 
  1. Additional legal ground for special categories of personal information:
    1. Alusi-ENT Limited needs to use the data in order to provide healthcare services to you
    2. The use is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest under UK law
    3. The use is necessary in order for Alusi-ENT Limited to establish, exercise or defend Alusi-ENT Limited’s legal rights


Purpose 5: Complying with our legal or regulatory obligations, and defending or exercising our legal rights

  1. As a provider of healthcare, Alusi-ENT Limited is subject to a wide range of legal and regulatory responsibilities.  Alusi-ENT Alusi-ENT Limited may be required by law or by regulators to provide personal information, and in which case Alusi-ENT Limited will have a legal responsibility to do so.  From time to time, clinicians are unfortunately also the subject of legal actions or complaints.  In order to fully investigate and respond to those actions, it is necessary to access your personal information (although only to the extent that it is necessary and relevant to the subject-matter). 
  1. Legal grounds:
    1. The use is necessary in order for Alusi-ENT Limited to comply with our legal obligations
  1. Additional legal ground for special categories of personal information:
    1. Alusi-ENT Limited needs to use the data in order for others to provide informed healthcare services to you
    2. 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 
    3. The use is necessary for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims

Purpose 6: Managing my business operations such as maintaining accounting records, analysis of financial results, internal audit requirements, receiving professional advice (e.g. tax or legal advice)

  1. In order to do this, Alusi-ENT Limited will not need to use your special categories of personal information and so Alusi-ENT Limited has not identified the additional ground to use your information for this purpose. 
  1. Legal grounds:
    1. Alusi-ENT Limited having an appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you 

Disclosures to third parties:

  1. Alusi-ENT Limited may disclose your information to the third parties listed below for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. This might include:
  1. A doctor, nurse, carer or any other healthcare professional involved in your treatment
  2. Other members of support staff involved in the delivery of your care, like receptionists and porters
  3. Anyone that you ask me to communicate with or provide as an emergency contact, for example your next of kin or carer
  4. NHS organisations, including NHS Resolution, NHS England, Department of Health
  5. Other private sector healthcare providers
  6. Your GP
  7. Your dentist
  8. Other clinicians (including their medical secretaries)
  9. Third parties who assist in the administration of your healthcare, such as insurance companies, medical billing companies
  10. Private Healthcare Information Network
  11. Government bodies, including the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and HMRC
  12. The police and other third parties where reasonably necessary for the prevention or detection of crime
  13. Our insurers
  14. Debt collection agencies
  15. Credit referencing agencies
  16. Our third-party services providers such as IT suppliers, actuaries, auditors, lawyers, marketing agencies, document management providers and tax advisers
  17. Selected third parties in connection with any sale, transfer or disposal of our business

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

How long do I keep personal information for?

  1. Alusi-ENT Limited will only keep your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the relevant purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and in order to comply with my legal and regulatory obligations.
  2. If you would like further information regarding the periods for which your personal information will be stored, please contact Ghassan Alusi using the details outlined in section 3.   

Your rights

  1. Under data protection law you have certain rights in relation to the personal information that Alusi-ENT Limited holds about you. These include rights to know what information is held and how it is used.  You may exercise these rights at any time by contacting Ghassan Alusi using the details provided at section 3 above.
  2. There will not usually be a charge for handling a request to exercise your rights.
  3. If Alusi-ENT Limited cannot comply with your request to exercise your rights, we will usually tell you why.
  4. 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. 
  5. If you make a large number of requests or it is clear that it is not reasonable for Alusi-ENT Limited to comply with a request then we do not have to respond.  Alternatively, Alusi-ENT Limited can charge for responding.

Your rights include:

The right to access your personal information

1.You are usually entitled to a copy of the personal information Alusi-ENT Limited holds about you and details about how Alusi-ENT Limited uses it.

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

3.Please note that in some cases Alusi-ENT Limited 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.

  1. Under Article 15(1) of the GDPR Alusi-ENT Limited must usually confirm whether Alusi-ENT Limited has personal information about you.  If Alusi-ENT Limited does hold personal information about you, Alusi-ENT Limited usually needs to explain to you:
  1. The purposes for which Alusi-ENT Limited uses your personal information
  2. The types of personal information Alusi-ENT Limited holds about you
  3. Who your personal information has been or will be shared with
  4. Where possible, the length of time Alusi-ENT Limited expects to hold your personal information.   If that is not possible, the criteria Alusi-ENT Limited uses to determine how long Alusi-ENT Limited holds your information
  5. If the personal data Alusi-ENT Limited holds about you was not provided by you, details of the source of the information
  6. Your right to ask Alusi-ENT Limited to amend or delete your personal information
  7. Your right to ask Alusi-ENT Limited to restrict how your personal information is used or to object to Alusi-ENT Limited’s use of your personal information
  8. Your right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office

The right to rectification

Alusi-ENT Limited takes reasonable steps to ensure that the information Alusi-ENT Limited holds about you is accurate and complete. However, if you do not believe this is the case, you can ask Alusi-ENT Limited to update or amend it.

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

In some circumstances, you have the right to request that Alusi-ENT Limited deletes the personal information Alusi-ENT Limited holds about you.  However, there are exceptions to this right and in certain circumstances Alusi-ENT Limited can refuse to delete the information in question.  

The right to restriction of processing

In some circumstances, Alusi-ENT Limited must "pause" our use of your personal data if you ask, although Alusi-ENT Limited does not have to comply with all requests to restrict Alusi-ENT Limited’s use of your personal information.  

The right to data portability

In some circumstances, Alusi-ENT Limited must transfer personal information that you have provided 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 withdraw consent

In some cases, Alusi-ENT Limited may need your consent in order for Alusi-ENT Limited’s use of your personal information to comply with data protection legislation.  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 Ghassan Alusi using the details provided at section 3 above.

The right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office

1.You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office if you are unhappy with the way that Alusi-ENT Limited has dealt with a request from you to exercise any of these rights, or if you think Alusi-ENT Limited has not complied with its legal obligations.

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

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

Updates to this Privacy Policy

Alusi-ENT Limited 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 Alusi-ENT Limited processes your personal data then Alusi-ENT Limited will provide you with an updated copy of the Policy.