Synapse Neuropsychology collects, works with and retains its patients’ personal information. This information is important in the optimal provision of our clinical services. However it is also important that the information is appropriately managed in accordance with law and ethical guidelines of the profession and as relevant to the local jurisdiction. This policy outlines how Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology handles patients’ personal information, in accordance with relevant privacy principles. 

 

An appropriate version of this privacy policy is available to all patients and referrers.

 

What constitutes personal information?

 

Personal information is any information which identifies you or could reasonably be used to identify you.

 

What personal information do we collect and why do we collect it?

 

In order to provide optimal clinical services, Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology will on the balance of probabilities collect the following information from patients or referrers:

 

• Your name, address and date of birth

• Your contact details

• Current and past medical information

• Relevant information concerning your family medical history 

• Your educational and occupational history

• Relevant legal/insurance history (in the case of medicolegal services)

 

In addition, in the provision of clinical services Synapse Oxford 

Neuropsychology will likely collect the following personal information:

 

• Responses and results from psychological tests/questionnaires 

• Responses and results reasonably obtained as part of a neuropsychological assessment (in ‘pen-and-paper’ format or via a computer/the internet/another IT device)

• Information pertaining to your response to past clinical treatments

 

All of the above material will be used to inform accurate assessment, diagnosis and treatment plans for Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology patients. If we did not have this information, it would increase the risk that the assessment, formulation, diagnosis and treatment plans subsequently developed would be less useful to the patient concerned.

 

We will collect information from you where it is reasonable and practical to do so.

 

Information provided by third parties

 

We may also need to collect information from others who have known you a long time (such as a spouse, close friend or parent/child) or from others involved in your care (such as your GP). 

 

This information will also be obtained under strict ethical and legal guidelines with respect to professional practice and the relevant jurisdiction. Furthermore, we will always endeavour to keep patients reliably informed of the information collected and the source of that information. Where appropriate, will seek and obtain written informed consent to contact and retrieve that information.

 

Use and disclosure of personal information

 

Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology will use and disclose personal information for the primary purpose of providing optimal clinical services. This will primarily take the form of a report prepared by the clinician and sent to the referrer or referring agent, plus others involved in the patient’s care where applicable (with appropriate duty of care and related ethical/legal considerations).

 

Usually, your signed consent will be required for us to provide information to an appropriately qualified clinician. However, t is noted that in some circumstances psychologists are required by law to disclose personal information without the consent of the patient. Specifically, there may be occasions when Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology discloses the personal information of a patient where there is a serious threat to the life, health, or safety of an individual or the public, or on a rare occasion to assist in the location of a missing person.

 

Storage and security of personal information

 

Professor Jonathan Foster will take reasonable steps to protect the personal information of patients from unauthorised modification, access or disclosure, misuse, interference or loss.

 

Paper documents containing personal information listed above will be stored under lock. Electronic information containing personal information listed above will be stored and backed up securely, in accordance with relevant professional, ethical and legal requirements.

 

Can you access your personal information?

 

Patients have a right to access personal information held by Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology. Such requests need to be put in writing for security and record-keeping purposes.

 

Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology may refuse the request for such information or limit the information so provided where it is legally entitled to do so. We will endeavour to provide reasons for refusal. For example, release of information may be denied or limited where such release may have an unreasonable impact on the privacy of others or is considered frivolous or vexatious.

 

Research and personal information

 

On occasion, Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology may engage in research activities to improve the quality of the service we provide. In such cases, personal information of patients may be used. In this context, the information will not be released to third parties but will be retained securely within Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology for the sole purpose of quality evaluation and improvement of services.

 

In addition, Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology may engage in academic or scientific research. In such cases, patients will be asked to sign a consent form allowing the use of their de-identified data for the purposes of a specific research project. Such research will be required to have obtained the prior approval of a human research ethics committee within a relevant government/statutory department, hospital or university.

 

De-identification

 

Where it is desired by Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology patients, and is practically and legally appropriate, the option is available to interact with Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology anonymously or using a pseudonym. This option is not available if doing so is impractical in terms of providing a clinical service or where the law or a court requires patients to identify themselves.

 

Duty of care

 

Practitioner/s at Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology are guided by relevant professional, ethical and legal guidelines concerning the appropriate collection of private information related to the provision of clinical services (e.g. concerning confidentiality, release of information, mandatory notification, appropriate record-keeping and the collection of patient information from associated parties). 

 

If there are any queries regarding relevant guidelines including any applicable patient charter/s, please contact Dr Jonathan Foster: drjonathanfoster@gmail.com

 

Changes to this policy

 

We may from time to time make changes to this policy to reflect changes to relevant legal, ethical and professional guidelines. All patients and referrers are encouraged to periodically review this policy to remain informed.

 

Complaints

 

Patients have a right to make a complaint about the handing of their personal information. 

 

Complaints can be made to Synapse Oxford Neuropsychology via email (drjonathanfoster@gmail.com). We will endeavour to respond appropriately to reasonable complaints (i.e. not of a frivolous or vexation nature) within 30 days of the receipt of the email.

 

Complaints can also be brought to relevant professional regulatory, information management and professional agencies within the relevant jurisdiction.

 

If there are any queries regarding agencies where you can make a complaint within the relevant jurisdiction, you may contact us for advice via email: Dr Jonathan Foster: drjonathanfoster@gmail.com

 

Further technical information concerning our privacy policy is presented below

 

Personal data collected

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• Navigation data: IP address and the website you came from

• Personal information: includes your first name, last name, email address, postcode and other personal information you provide.

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Use of personal data

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• Analytics: uses navigation data in services provided by the NHS website and third parties. For more information see our cookies policy. 

• Advertising: some health campaigns we host on behalf of Public Health England are supplied with advertising data.

• Personalisation: uses navigation data and personal information to enable us, and third parties, to tailor the services provided to you.

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Data sharing

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• Site navigation and usage data are shared with trusted third-party services where we are utilising their technology to provide essential analysis data. We will not intentionally share personal information with any third parties without your consent.

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Our Privacy Policy

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Your privacy is important to us. This privacy policy covers what we collect and how we use, disclose, transfer and store your information.

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We analyse information to see what is most effective about our website and associated services to help us identify ways to improve it and to make it more effective. We may also use information for other purposes, which we would describe to you at the point when we collect the information.

When you use our website, we use various software features and related technologies to collect information indirectly - such as your IP address. This is commonplace across all internet services. Such information is then kept in our internet access logs. We also collect some personal information directly – e.g. when you actively submit details.

We will process your data in accordance with the Data Protection regulations in force in the relevant local jurisdiction at the time. You are entitled to know whether we hold information about you and, if we do, to have access to that information and require it to be corrected if it is inaccurate

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Data Controller

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If there are any queries regarding our privacy policy and/or your data, you may contact us using the information below: Dr Jonathan Foster: drjonathanfoster@gmail.com

 

Contact form and email

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You may be contacted concerning your enquiry. You will be asked to consent to this at the point you submit your data. We will hold the information you provide us for as long as necessary to support the service we are providing you; for example, so we can continue to provide assistance or resolve an ongoing issue. .

How long do we hold your information?

We will hold the information for as long as we are providing you services and otherwise as per relevant professional, statutory, regulatory and and ethical guidelines.

Do we share information?

We seek to capture the minimal amount of personal data, and only share with other organisations where the law requires us to do so or where we require and have gained your consent.

How can you access, amend or withdraw the personal data you have given us?

To get in touch about these rights, please contact us via the Data Controller details above. We will seek to deal with your request without undue delay, and in any event within 1 month (subject to any extensions to which we are lawfully entitled). We may keep a record of your communications to help us resolve any issues that you raise. Where we think that it is reasonable for us not to comply with your request, we will explain our reasons for this decision.

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Right to withdraw consent

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Where we have obtained your consent to process your personal data or consent to send you information, you may withdraw your consent at any time and we will cease to carry out the particular activity that you previously consented to (unless we consider that there is an alternative reason to justify our continued processing of your data for this purpose, in which case we will inform you of this condition; for example, concerning legal requirement/s).

Where we think that it is reasonable for us not to comply with your request, we will explain our reasons for this decision.

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Data access requests

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You may ask us to confirm what information we hold about you at any time, and request us to modify, update or delete such information. We may ask you to verify your identity and for more information about your request. If we provide you with access to the information we hold about you, we will not charge you for this. If we refuse your request for any legitimate reason, we will always tell you the reasons for doing so.

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Right to remove

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In certain situations, you have the right to request us to ‘remove’ your personal data. We will respond to your request within the agreed timeframe (although we may be allowed to extend this period in certain cases) and will only disagree with you if certain limited conditions apply (for example, concerning legal requirement/s). If we do agree to your request, we will delete your data. 

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Normally, the information must meet one of the following criteria:

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• the data are no longer necessary for the purpose for which we originally collected and/or processed it;

• where previously given, you have withdrawn your consent to us processing your data and there is no other valid reason for us to continue processing your information;

• the data have been processed unlawfully (i.e. in a manner that does not comply with existing Data Protection regulations in the relevant jurisdiction);

• it is necessary for the data to be deleted for us to comply with our legal obligations as a Data Controller.

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We would only be entitled to refuse to comply with your request for one of the following reasons:

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• to exercise the right of freedom of expression and information;

• to comply with legal obligations or for the performance of a public interest task or exercise of official authority;

• for reasons that are in the public interest;

• for archival, research or statistical purposes;

• to exercise or defend a legal claim.

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When complying with a valid request for the removal of data, we will take all reasonably practicable steps to delete the relevant data.

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Where we think that it is reasonable for us not to comply with your request, we will explain our reasons for this decision.

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Right to restrict processing

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You have the right to request that we restrict our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances. This means that we can only continue to store your data and will not be able to carry out any further processing activities with it until either: (i) one of the circumstances listed below is resolved; (ii) you consent; or (iii) further processing is necessary for either the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, the protection of the rights of another individual or reasons of important public interest.

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The circumstances in which you are entitled to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data are:

• where you dispute the accuracy of the personal data that we are processing about you - in this case, our processing of your personal data will be restricted for the period during which the accuracy of the data is verified;

• where you object to our processing of your personal data for our legitimate purposes - in this case, you can request that the data be restricted while we verify our grounds for processing your personal data;

• where our processing of your data is unlawful, but you would prefer us to restrict our processing of it rather than erasing it;

• where we have no further need to process your personal data, but you require the data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

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Where we think that it is reasonable for us not to comply with your request, we will explain our reasons for this decision.

Right to rectification

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You also have the right to request that we rectify any inaccurate or incomplete personal data that we hold about you. 

Where we think that it is reasonable for us not to comply with your request, we will explain our reasons for this decision.

Keeping information secure

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We invest significant resources to protect your personal information, from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. However, no internet-based site can be 100% secure and so we cannot be held responsible for unauthorised or unintended access that is beyond our control.

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Page last reviewed: 16/05/2019