Privacy Policy

When you initially register with us, you will be asked for some essential contact details. The information we request is as follows:

• Title, first name and surname
• Postal address and postcode
• Landline (home and work) and mobile telephone numbers
• Email address
• If joining our Discount Loyalty Scheme, we will also need to collect your bank details

This information is vital so that we can:

• Register you on our Practice Management system
• Provide our veterinary services to your pet/s and deliver our contract to you
• Comply with RCVS & VMD regulations when supplying POM-V medications

Specifically, we may use data:

• To make appointments, charge fees, produce an invoice and take payment
• To contact you regarding your pet/s, your account and address any queries
• To dispense medications, food and preventative healthcare for your pet
• To admit for operations and procedures
• To send treatment reminders for your pet/s
• To register you on to our pet health plan (if applicable)

On our GDPR form we will ask for your consent for preference of SMS or text treatment reminders, and also your explicit consent for SMS or text information and marketing. We will also ask your consent upon admission for treatment/procedures, euthanasia and off-license medications.

As we have a duty of care to your pet, many of our processing activities are classed as Legitimate Interest, such as sending out booster reminders and other recalls, sending bloods/tissue for testing, referring to a specialist and urine testing.

We also process on the basis of Contract, such as when you first register your pet with us, checking your details on the GDPR form are correct, making appointments, raising an invoice and signing up to the loyalty scheme.

We will occasionally need to share your personal information with a third party when it is in the best interest of your pet/s, yourself, or for debt collection. For example:

A cookie is a small file placed on your computer’s hard drive. It enables our website to identify your computer as you view different pages on our website.

Cookies allow websites and applications to store your preferences in order to present content, options or functions that are specific to you. They also enable us to see information like how many people use the website and what pages they tend to visit.

We may use cookies to:

• Analyse our web traffic using an analytics package – aggregated usage data helps us improve the website structure, design, content and functions
• Identify whether you are signed in to our website
• Test content on our website – for example, 50% of our users might see one piece of content, the other 50% a different piece of content
• Store information about your preferences, so we can present content you will find more relevant and interesting
• Recognise when you return to our website, so we can show relevant content or functionality you used previously

Cookies do not provide us with access to your computer or any information about you, other than that which you choose to share with us.

You can use your web browser’s cookie settings to determine how our website uses cookies. If you do not want our website to store cookies on your computer or device, you should set your web browser to refuse cookies.

However, please note that doing this may affect how our website functions. Some pages and services may become unavailable to you.

Unless you have changed your browser to refuse cookies, our website will issue cookies when you visit it.

You have the following rights over your personal data:

• The right to be informed about how we will use your personal data
• The right to access your personal data and information
• The right to rectification – to have your data corrected, or completed if incomplete
• The right to erasure
• The right to restrict processing of your data
• The right to object to the processing of your data
• The right to complain to the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office)

You have a right to access the personal data we hold about you. In accordance with section 7 of the Data Protection Act 2018, requests should be made in writing to:

Keeping your information secure is very important to us. All data stored on the Practice Management system is encrypted. Our firewalls and malware protection are kept up to date, and our computer system is username and password protected.

We hold a certificate of PCI DSS Merchant compliance for processing credit/debit cards and have an in-house credit/debit card security policy. We also process personal information using a CCTV system to monitor and collect visual images for the purpose of security and the prevention and detection of crime.

Historical in-house forms with personal data on are either locked away in a secure archive room, or are uploaded to the Practice Management System and shredded as soon as possible after use.

Changes will be made to this policy from time to time and will be notified on our website and in the surgery.

Under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) we are required to gain your specific consent in order to send you treatment reminders, information, and marketing information. We are also under a duty to ensure that the information we hold on our systems about you is correct. Please take a few minutes to review the information we hold on our practice management computer system. If any amendments are needed, we are required to seek proof of ID. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.