Privacy Policy (UK GDPR)
The Pain Relief Clinic
Effective Date: 01/2023
Last Updated: 04/2026
At The Pain Relief Clinic, we are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information lawfully, fairly, and transparently in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store, and share your personal data when you visit our website, contact us, or receive osteopathic treatment from us.
1. Who We Are (Data Controller)
The Pain Relief Clinic is the data controller responsible for your personal data.
Clinic Name: The Pain Relief Clinic
Address: 10 London Road, Hassocks,West Sussex, BN6 9NT
Email: info@nullthepainreliefclinic.co.uk
Phone: 01273 047881
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your information, please contact us using the details above.
2. What Information We Collect
We may collect and process the following categories of personal data:
a) Personal and Contact Details
• Full name
• Address
• Email address
• Telephone number
• Date of birth
• Emergency contact details
b) Health Information (Special Category Data)
As part of providing osteopathic care, we may collect:
• Medical history
• Symptoms and injury details
• Treatment notes and clinical observations
• Lifestyle and relevant health information
• Referral letters or reports (if provided)
Health information is classed as special category personal data under UK GDPR and is handled with additional care.
c) Appointment and Service Information
• Appointment dates and attendance history
• Communication records (emails, messages, phone notes)
• Consent forms and agreements
d) Payment and Financial Information
• Payment status
• Invoice and receipt information
• Transaction references
We do not store full card details. Payments are processed securely through third-party payment providers where applicable.
e) Website and Technical Data
When you use our website, we may collect:
• IP address
• Browser type and version
• Device information
• Pages visited and time spent on the site
• Referring websites
• Cookie data
3. How We Collect Your Personal Data
We collect personal data when you:
• Book an appointment (online, by phone, or in person)
• Complete intake or medical history forms
• Contact us by email, phone, or via our website
• Attend appointments and receive treatment
• Provide feedback or testimonials (where applicable)
• Use our website (through cookies and analytics tools)
4. How We Use Your Information
We use your personal data for the following purposes:
• To provide osteopathic assessment and treatment
• To maintain accurate clinical records
• To manage bookings, cancellations, and appointment reminders
• To communicate with you about your care
• To process payments and issue invoices/receipts
• To comply with legal, regulatory, and insurance requirements
• To respond to enquiries and requests
• To improve our website and services
• To protect our business from fraud or misuse
5. Our Lawful Basis for Processing (UK GDPR)
Under UK GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for processing your personal data.
a) For General Personal Data, we rely on:
• Contract – to provide you with treatment services you have requested
• Legal obligation – for record keeping, tax, or regulatory compliance
• Legitimate interests – to manage our clinic, bookings, and communications efficiently
b) For Special Category Data (Health Information), we rely on:
• Article 9(2)(h) – processing necessary for the purposes of preventative or occupational medicine, medical diagnosis, provision of health or social care or treatment
• Article 9(2)(a) (where relevant) – explicit consent, for example where required for sharing information with another practitioner
6. Confidentiality and Medical Records
All clinical records are treated as confidential. Access is restricted to authorised clinic staff and practitioners only.
We will not share your medical information with third parties unless:
• you have provided consent, or
• it is necessary for your care, or
• we are legally required to do so
7. How We Store and Protect Your Data
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to keep your personal data secure. This may include:
• Secure practice management software
• Password protection and access control
• Encryption where available
• Secure storage of paper records
• Staff confidentiality obligations
• Regular updates and monitoring of systems
While we take strong precautions, no online transmission or storage system is completely secure.
8. Who We Share Your Information With
We do not sell your personal data.
We may share your data only when necessary with trusted third parties, such as:
• Practice management / booking system providers
• Payment providers (e.g., Stripe, Square, PayPal)
• Accountants and professional advisors
• IT service providers
• Insurers (where required)
• Other healthcare professionals, but only with your consent or where necessary for your care
• HMRC or other authorities where legally required
All third-party service providers are required to protect your data and process it in accordance with UK GDPR.
9. Cookies and Website Analytics
Our website may use cookies to improve performance and user experience. Cookies may be:
• Strictly necessary cookies (required for website function)
• Analytics cookies (to measure website usage)
• Functionality cookies (to remember preferences)
Where required, we will request your consent before placing non-essential cookies on your device.
You can manage or disable cookies using your browser settings.
10. Marketing Communications
We will only send marketing emails or promotional messages if you have opted in (where required).
You can unsubscribe at any time by:
• clicking the unsubscribe link in an email, or
• contacting us at info@nullthepainreliefclinic.co.uk
We may contact existing patients with relevant service information where permitted under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR).
11. How Long We Keep Your Data (Retention)
We keep your personal data only as long as necessary.
Patient records are retained in line with professional standards, legal obligations, and insurance requirements. Typically, healthcare records are retained for at least 8 years after the last appointment, and in some cases longer (for example, where treatment involved minors).
Enquiry data (e.g., contact form messages) is generally kept only as long as needed to respond and manage follow-up.
12. Your Data Protection Rights (UK GDPR)
Under UK GDPR, you have rights including:
• Right of access – request a copy of your personal data
• Right to rectification – request correction of inaccurate information
• Right to erasure – request deletion of your data (in some circumstances)
• Right to restrict processing – request limited use of your data
• Right to object – object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Right to data portability – request transfer of your data to another provider
• Right to withdraw consent – where consent is the basis for processing
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at info@nullthepainreliefclinic.co.uk
13. Complaints
If you are unhappy with how we handle your personal data, please contact us first so we can address your concerns.
You also have the right to complain to the UK regulator:
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
Website: ico.org.uk
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
14. Third-Party Links
Our website may contain links to third-party websites (such as social media platforms or online booking systems). We are not responsible for their privacy policies or how they handle your data.
Please review their privacy policies before providing personal information.
15. International Transfers
Some service providers we use (such as email hosting, cloud booking systems, or analytics platforms) may store or process data outside the UK.
Where this occurs, we ensure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as:
• UK adequacy regulations, or
• standard contractual clauses, or
• other legally approved transfer mechanisms
16. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The most recent version will always be published on our website, and the “Last Updated” date will reflect the latest changes.
17. Contact Details
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact:
The Pain Relief Clinic
Address: 10 London Road, Hassocks,West Sussex. BN6 9NT
Email: info@nullthepainreliefclinic.co.uk
Phone: 01273 047881
Cookies
Cookies and how they Benefit You
Our website uses cookies, as almost all websites do, to help provide you with the best experience we can. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites.
Our cookies help us:
- Make our website work as you’d expect
- Improve the speed/security of the site
- Continuously improve our website for you
- Make our marketing more efficient (ultimately helping us to offer the service we do at the price we do)
We do not use cookies to:
- Collect any personally identifiable information (without your express permission)
- Collect any sensitive information (without your express permission)
- Pass data to advertising networks
- Pass personally identifiable data to third parties
- Pay sales commissions
You can learn more about all the cookies we use below
Granting us permission to use cookies
If the settings on your software that you are using to view this website (your browser) are adjusted to accept cookies we take this, and your continued use of our website, to mean that you are happy with this situation. Should you wish to remove or not use cookies from our site you can learn how to do this below, however doing so will likely mean that our site will not work as you would expect.
More about our Cookies
Our own cookies
We use cookies to make our website work including:
- Remembering that you have accepted our notification that this website uses cookies
There is no way to prevent these cookies being set other than to not use our site.
Anonymous Visitor Statistics Cookies
We use cookies to compile visitor statistics such as how many people have visited our website, what type of technology they are using (e.g. Mac or Windows which helps to identify when our site isn’t working as it should for particular technologies), how long they spend on the site, what page they look at etc. This helps us to continuously improve our website. These so called “Analytics” programs also tell us if , on an anonymous basis, how people reached this site (e.g. from a search engine) and whether they have been here before, helping us to put more money into developing our services for you instead of marketing spend.
Turning Cookies Off
You can usually switch cookies off by adjusting your browser settings to stop it from accepting cookies (Learn how to switch off cookies here). Doing so however will likely limit the functionality of our’s and a large proportion of the world’s websites as cookies are a standard part of most modern websites
It may be that you concerns around cookies relate to so called “spyware”. Rather than switching off cookies in your browser you may find that anti-spyware software achieves the same objective by automatically deleting cookies considered to be invasive. Learn more about managing cookies with antispyware software.
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