We'd love to hear from you
The best way to contact us is either call in to the practice or telephone one of our helpful reception staff giving your name. We are open 9am to 1.00pm and 2pm to 5.30 pm daily Monday to Friday. We are always busy but never too busy to listen and try to accommodate your needs. We are primarily a private practice with different payment options and plans and as a patient of either Denplan or purely private we will see all our on call /out of hours emergencies ourselves. We do not send you to a call centre or external rendezvous and will arrange to see you at our practice so that we have access to your records and also you feel happy and familiar with both the dentist and the surroundings !
Telephone : 01665 602151
Data Protection
Data Protection Privacy Notice for Patients
In providing your dental care and treatment, we will ask for information about you and your health. Occasionally, we may receive information from other providers who have been involved in providing your care. This privacy notice describes the type of personal information we hold, why we hold it and what we do with it.
About us
We are Alnwick Dental Practice LTD operating at Alnwick Dental Practice 3 Bongate Without Alnwick, Northumberland NE66 1PY. TEL 01665 602151
Dr Alison Pass Managing Director of Alnwick Dental Care Limited is responsible for keeping secure the information about you that we hold. Those at the practice who have access to your information include dentists and other dental professionals involved with your care and treatment, and the practice manager, business manager and reception staff responsible for the management and administration of the practice.
Our data protection officer, Kirsty Robson , ensures that the practice complies with data protection requirements to ensure that we collect, use, store and dispose of your information responsibly. You can contact our data protection officer, Kirsty Robson by phone on 01665 602151.
Information that we hold
We can only keep and use information for specific reasons set out in the law. If we want to keep and use information about your health, we can only do so in particular circumstances. Below, we describe the information we hold and why, and the lawful basis for collecting and using it.
Contact details
We hold personal information about you including your name, date of birth, national insurance number, NHS number, address, telephone number and email address. This information allows us to fulfil our contract with you to provide appointments. We will also use the information to send you reminders and recall appointments as we have a legitimate interest to ensure your continuing care and to make you aware of our services.
Dental records
We hold information about your dental and general health, including
Clinical records made by dentists and other dental professionals involved with your care and treatment
X-rays, clinical photographs, digital scans of your mouth and teeth, and study models
Medical and dental histories
Treatment plans and consent
Notes of conversations with you about your care
Dates of your appointments
Details of any complaints you have made and how these complaints were dealt with
Correspondence with you and other health professionals or institutions.
We collect and use this information to allow us to fulfil our contract with you to discuss your treatment options and provide dental care that meets your needs. We also use this information for the legitimate interest of ensuring the quality of the treatment we provide.
Financial information
We hold information about the fees we have charged, the amounts you have paid and some payment details. This information forms part of our contractual obligation to you to provide dental care and allows us to meet legal financial requirements.
Where your care is provided under the terms of the NHS, we are required to complete statutory forms to allow payments to be processed. This is an NHS requirement.
How we use your information
To provide you with the dental care and treatment that you need, we require up-to-date and accurate information about you.
We will share your information with the NHS and Denplan in connection with your dental treatment.
We may contact you to conduct patient surveys or to find out if you are happy with the treatment you received for quality control purposes.
We will seek your preference for how we contact you about your dental care. Our usual methods are telephone, email or letter.
If we wish to use your information for dental research or dental education, we will discuss this with you and seek your consent. Depending on the purpose and if possible, we will anonymise your information. If this is not possible, we will inform you and discuss your options.
We may use your contact details to inform you of products and services available at our Practice.
Sharing information
Your information is normally used only by those working at the practice but there may be instances where we need to share it – for example, with:
Your doctor
The hospital or community dental services or other health professionals caring for you
Specialist dental or medical services to which we may refer you
NHS payment authorities
The Department for Work and Pensions and its agencies, where you are claiming exemption or remission from NHS charges
Dental laboratories
Debt collection agencies
Private dental schemes of which you are a member.
We will only disclose your information on a need-to-know basis and will limit any information that we share to the minimum necessary. We will let you know in advance if we send your medical information to another medical provider and we will give you the details of that provider at that time.
In certain circumstances or if required by law, we may need to disclose your information to a third party not connected with your health care, including HMRC or other law enforcement or government agencies.
National data opt-out policy
Alnwick Dental Practice Limited is one of many organisations working in the health and care system to improve care for patients and the public.
Whenever you use a health or care service (A&E or community care services, for example), personal information is collected and stored on your patient record to ensure that you receive the best and most appropriate care and treatment. The information collected can also be used by and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for example, to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations by:
Improving the quality and standards of care provided
Research into the development of new treatments
Preventing illness and diseases
Monitoring safety
Planning services.
Information about your health and care is confidential and can only be used where allowed by law. Mostly, information used for research and planning is anonymised so that you cannot be identified; your confidentiality is maintained.
You can choose whether you want your confidential information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of your information, you do not need to do anything. If you wish to opt out, your confidential information will be used only to support your individual care.
You can register your choice and find out more at nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters – including
What is meant by ‘confidential patient information’?
Examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
The benefits of sharing data and who uses it
How your data is protected
Situations where opt-out will not apply
You can change your choice at any time.
Your information will not be shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes without your specific agreement.
Keeping your information safe
We store your personal information securely on our practice computer system and in a manual filing system. Your information cannot be accessed by those who do not work at the practice; only those working at the practice have access to your information. They understand their legal responsibility to maintain confidentiality and follow practice procedures to ensure this.
We take precautions to ensure security of the practice premises, the practice filing systems and computers.
We use high-quality specialist dental software to record and use your personal information safely and effectively. Our computer system has a secure audit trail and we back-up information routinely.
We use cloud computing facilities for storing some of your information. The practice has a rigorous agreement with our provider to ensure that we meet the obligations described in this policy and that we keep your information securely.
We keep your records for 10 years after the date of your last visit to the Practice or until you reach the age of 25 years, whichever is the longer. At your request, we will delete non-essential information (for example some contact details) before the end of this period.
Access to your information and other rights
You have a right to access the information that we hold about you and to receive a copy. We do not usually charge you for copies of your information; if we pass on a charge, we will explain the reasons.
You can also request us to
Correct any information that you believe is inaccurate or incomplete. If we have disclosed that information to a third party, we will let them know about the change.
Erase some of the information we hold. For legal reasons, we may be unable to erase certain information (for example, information about your dental treatment). However, we can if you ask us to, delete some contact details and other non-clinical information.
Stop using your information – for example, sending you reminders for appointments or information about our service. Even if you have given us consent to send you marketing information, you may withdraw that consent at any time.
Stop using information if you believe the information is inaccurate or you believe we are using your information illegally.
Supply your information electronically to another dentist.
If we are relying on your consent to use your personal information for a particular purpose, you may withdraw your consent at any time, and we will stop using your information for that purpose.
All requests should be made by email to our data protection officer Kirsty Robson at alison.pass@yahoo.com
If you do not agree
If you do not wish us to use your personal information as described, you should discuss the matter with your dentist. If you object to the way that we collect and use your information, we may not be able to continue to provide your dental care.
If you have any concerns about how we use your information and you do not feel able to discuss it with your dentist or anyone at the practice, you should contact The Information Commissioner’s
Complaints Procedure
In this practice we take complaints very seriously and try to ensure that all our patients are pleased with their experience of our service.
We learn from all feedback given and we respond to customers’ concerns in a caring and sensitive way.
The person responsible for dealing with any complaint about the service which we provide is Kirsty Robson our Complaints Manager.
If you wish to give us feedback or make a complaint you may email, telephone or make an appointment to see Kirsty. Please see reception for contact details or to make an appointment. If Kirsty is not available at the time, then you will be told when you will be able to talk to her or a member of staff will take brief details of the issue and pass it to her and provide the individual with a copy. If the matter requires a more immediate response, we will arrange for a senior member of the dental team to deal with it.
If a complaint is about any aspect of clinical care or associated charges it will normally be referred to a dentist, unless you do not want this to happen.
We will acknowledge your complaint in writing and enclose a copy of our code of practice as soon as possible, normally within three working days.
We will seek to investigate the complaint within 14 days of receipt to give an explanation of the circumstances which led to the complaint. We will speak to everyone involved. If we are unable to investigate the complaint within ten working days, we will notify you, giving reasons for the delay and a likely period within which the investigation will be completed.
We will confirm the decision about the complaint in writing immediately after completing our investigation.
Proper and comprehensive records are kept of any complaint received as well as any actions taken to improve services as a consequence of a complaint If you are not satisfied with the result of our procedure then a complaint may be made to:
The Dental Complaints Service, Stephenson House, 2 Cherry Orchard Road, Croydon, CR0 6BA (Telephone: 08456 120 540) www.dentalcomplaints.org.uk for complaints about private treatment
NHS England PO Box 16738, Redditch B97 9BT
email:englandcontactus@nhs.net or Tel:0300 311 2233 or the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Millbank Tower, Millbank London SW1P 4QP, telephone: 0345 015 4033 or www.ombudsman.org.uk for complaints about NHS treatment
The General Dental Council, 37 Wimpole Street, London, W1M 8DQ (Telephone: 0845 222 4141), the dentists’ regulatory body for complaints about professional misconduct
Simply Health professionals, customer advisors Tel: 0800 401 402.