Patient Privacy Policy

Solent Specialist Physiotherapy
Effective from: 12 April 2026

At Solent Specialist Physiotherapy, we are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information responsibly, securely and transparently.

This Patient Privacy Notice explains how we collect, use, store and protect your personal information when you contact us about, book or receive physiotherapy services from us.

Who we are

Solent Specialist Physiotherapy is the organisation responsible for your personal information.

If you have any questions about this notice or how we handle your information, please contact:

Solent Specialist Physiotherapy
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 0330 133 9090
Postal address: 70 High St, Fareham PO16 7BB 

The information we collect

We may collect and use the following information about you:

• your name, date of birth, address, telephone number and email address;

• emergency contact or next of kin details, where relevant;

• appointment and attendance information;

• payment and billing information;

• referral information;

• health and medical information relevant to your care, including symptoms, past medical history, medications, examination findings, diagnosis, treatment plans, progress notes and clinical correspondence;

• communications between you and us, including by email, telephone, online forms or messaging where used for service-related communication.

Where appropriate, we may also collect information from:

• you directly;

• a parent or guardian;

• someone legally authorised to act on your behalf in relation to your care, such as a Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney;

• your GP, consultant or another healthcare professional involved in your care;

• your insurer or other authorised third party where relevant to your treatment or funding.

How we use your information

We use your personal information to:

• respond to your enquiry or appointment request;

• arrange and manage appointments;

• assess your condition and provide physiotherapy treatment;

• keep accurate clinical records;

• communicate with you about your care;

• liaise with other healthcare professionals involved in your care, where appropriate;

• manage accounts, invoices and payments;

• process insurance-funded treatment and communicate with insurers or other funders where relevant;

• meet our legal, regulatory, professional and insurance obligations;

• investigate complaints, incidents or safeguarding concerns where necessary;

• protect the safety of patients, staff and others where required.

Our lawful basis for processing your information

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful basis for using your personal information.

For most patient administration and treatment-related activity, we process your personal data because it is:

• necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;

• necessary for our legitimate interests in running a safe and effective physiotherapy service, where those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests; and/or

• necessary to comply with a legal obligation, where applicable.

Because we process information about your health, we also rely on an additional condition for processing special category data. In most cases, this is because the processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, medical diagnosis, the provision of health care or treatment, or the management of health care systems and services.

Consent

We do not usually rely on consent as the legal basis for holding and using your personal information for routine physiotherapy care.

However, we may ask for your consent in specific situations, for example:

• if we want to use your information in a way that is not part of your direct care;

• if we need your permission to share information where this is not otherwise justified;

• if you choose to receive marketing emails from us.

Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

Who we may share your information with

We may share your information where necessary and appropriate with:

• clinicians working within Solent Specialist Physiotherapy;

• your GP, consultant or other healthcare professionals involved in your care;

• your insurer or other funding organisation where your treatment is funded through them;

• secure third-party service providers who support our business operations, including practice management, clinical record, booking, email, payment and IT systems, including WriteUpp;

• legal, regulatory, safeguarding or law enforcement bodies where we are required or permitted to do so by law.

We will only share the minimum necessary information for the relevant purpose.

We do not sell your personal information.

How we keep your information safe

We take reasonable steps to protect your information from loss, misuse, unauthorised access, alteration or disclosure.

These steps may include:

• secure electronic record systems;

• password protection and access controls;

• restricting access to those who need the information for legitimate clinical or business reasons;

• secure storage of paper records, where used;

• the use of reputable service providers with appropriate security measures in place.

How long we keep your information

We keep your personal information only for as long as necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including to meet legal, professional, insurance and regulatory requirements.

In line with professional record-keeping guidance:

• adult clinical records are normally retained for 8 years from the date of last treatment;

• children’s clinical records are normally retained until the patient’s 25th birthday.

After this period, records are securely deleted or destroyed unless there is a lawful reason to retain them for longer.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law, you have rights in relation to your personal information. These may include the right to:

• request access to the personal information we hold about you;

• ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;

• ask us to erase your information in certain circumstances;

• ask us to restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances;

• object to certain types of processing;

• request transfer of your information where applicable;

• withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent.

Some of these rights are limited and depend on the legal basis we are relying on.

Complaints

If you have any concerns about how we handle your personal information, please contact us first and we will do our best to resolve the issue.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO):

Information Commissioner’s Office
Website: ico.org.uk

Marketing

If you choose to opt in, we may send you occasional emails about clinic updates, services and evidence-based self-management advice.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in an email or by contacting us directly.

Changes to this notice

We may update this Patient Privacy Notice from time to time. The most current version will always be available on our website or provided on request.

 
Email: [email protected]