Fortify Clinic

Patient Privacy Notice

Introduction

Your information is very important to us and we will look after it in accordance with all applicable privacy and data protection laws and legislation, including the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

This patient privacy notice explains what information we collect about you and why, how we use it, who we share it with and your legal rights as a data subject.

Who are we?

We are Fortify Clinic Limited (company number 12160393) with registered office address c/o Echo Tax, Spaces Manchester Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 5AN and referred to throughout this patient privacy notice as "we", "us", "our".

We provide healthcare services to healthcare providers such as the NHS in order that we can provide healthcare to patients, such as you. The NHS will be a controller of your personal data and you should refer to the privacy notice of the NHS for details of the processing by the NHS of your information.

Where we process your personal data in order to provide healthcare services to you, we will be a controller of personal data to the extent that we process your personal data on our systems for our own purposes. You can contact us at info@fortifyclinic.com for more details about how we use your information, including your rights as a data subject.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office ("ICO") as a data controller (registration number ZA849667). For more information, please visit the ICO's website www.ico.org.uk.

Where your information is processed by other companies associated with us for their own independent purposes, these associated companies may also be controllers of your information.

Where did we obtain this information and what information are we collecting and why?

We may collect your personal information from a number of different sources involved in your treatment and care, including GPs, dentists, hospitals (both NHS and private), mental health providers, NHS commissioners, healthcare professionals and administrative staff. We may also collect information directly from you.

What information are we collecting and why

Personal information means any information relating to an identifiable individual. We may collect and process various types of personal information about you, which may include your name, age, date of birth, next-of-kin and dependent information, contact details and identity data (such as NHS number), for the purposes set out in this patient privacy notice.

To the extent permitted by applicable laws, we may also collect and process some information about you that may be sensitive in nature. This includes information relating to your current or previous physical and mental health, racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, sex life and sexual orientation and genetic or biometric data. This may also include details of your medical history and healthcare services previously provided to you by GPs, dentists and hospitals and any medications you have been prescribed or taken. We refer to this as "special category" information in this patient privacy notice.

Types of personal information

What are the purposes for which your information is used?

We use your personal information for a number of different purposes:

  • In connection with your health assessment, care or treatment;
  • To contact you in advance of and after your admission or appointment for reasons connected with your health assessment, care or treatment and to send confirmations or reminders of your appointments;
  • To confirm any reasonable adjustments that you may require;
  • For quality assurance, maintaining our business records, monitoring outcomes and dealing with any complaints;
  • To exercise our rights, take legal action or defend ourselves from claims and to comply with laws and regulations that apply to us and the people and organisations we work with;
  • For the purposes of taking part in a reorganisation of our business and/or any sale, merger or outsourcing of all or part of our business.

Legal grounds

Each time we process your personal information for the purposes described above, we must have a legal ground to do so. These grounds are set out below.

Standard personal information: We process standard personal information (that is not special category information) about you if:

  • It is necessary to comply with the obligations set out in a contract with you or to take steps which you have asked us to take before entering into a contract – if we have a contract with you, we will process your personal information to fulfil that contract (for example, to pay you for your service or services);
  • It is in our own or a third party's legitimate interests (see further below).
  • We are required to or are allowed to do so by law.

Where we are processing special category we must have a specific additional legal justification to do so.

Special category information

We process special category information about you if:

  • The processing is necessary for the purposes of occupational medicine including the provision of healthcare and related services;
  • To protect your vital interests or those of another person where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent (for example, in an exceptional medical emergency);
  • We will need to use such personal information to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.
  • You have obviously made that personal information public (for example, you publicly share sensitive personal information on the internet);
  • It is in the public interest, in line with local laws;
  • It is necessary to establish, make or defend legal claims; and
  • We have your explicit consent (in limited circumstances).

Our legitimate interests

We process your personal information for a number of legitimate interests. Taking into account your interests, rights and freedoms, the types of legitimate interest which allow us to process your personal information include:

  • The provision of healthcare and related services;
  • Quality assurance, maintaining our business records, monitoring outcomes and responding to any complaints;
  • To make sure that health services provided to patients are carried out to the requisite standards;
  • To maintain the health, safety and welfare of patients, workers and health professionals;
  • For statistical research and analysis;
  • To protect our (or our customers' or other people's) rights, property or safety;
  • To monitor how well we are meeting our clinical and non-clinical performance expectations;
  • To exercise our rights, to respond to complaints, to take legal action or defend ourselves from claims and to keep to laws and regulations that apply to us and the people and organisations we work with; and
  • To take part in, or be the subject of, any sale, merger, outsourcing or disposal of all or parts of the business or for us to take over another business.

Who has access to your information?

Your personal information will only be shared with third parties where necessary.

We will share your information with those involved with your health assessment, care or treatment, such as healthcare practitioners and administrative assistants. Where these third parties act as a "data processor", they carry out their tasks on our behalf and upon our instructions for the above mentioned purposes. In this case, your personal information will only be disclosed to those parties to the extent necessary to provide the required services.

We may share relevant parts of your personal information with your GP, dentist, hospitals (NHS and private) and NHS commissioner. These third parties are "data controllers" of your personal information and have their own separate privacy policies.

We may share information about you, where relevant, with external organisations such as our lawyers, auditors, insurers, financial and tax advisors and with third party suppliers which provide us with document scanning and storage facilities, electronic patient and clinical staff administration and records systems, radiology imaging archiving and reporting systems, information technology systems and clinical and non-clinical software applications.

We may share information with our regulators, including the Care Quality Commission. We may also need to share your information where we are legally obliged to do so, for example by a court order.

Where is your information transferred?

Your personal information is mainly processed within the European Economic Area ("EEA"). Where it is necessary to make a transfer of your personal information outside of the EEA, we will take the required steps to make sure that it is protected and that its transfer is in compliance with applicable data protection laws.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only keep your personal information for as long as reasonably required to fulfil the relevant purposes set out in this patient privacy notice and in order to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

Your rights

In law, you are a "data subject" and have certain rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you. These rights and how to use them are explained below.

If you have any questions, or need more information or guidance, please contact If you have any queries relating to our use of your personal information, please email info@fortifyclinic.com.

Access to your information

You can request access to the information we hold about you and details about:

  • Why we are processing it;
  • Who we are sharing it with and if any information is transferred to a country not deemed to have adequate protections in place for personal data;
  • How long we will be keeping your information;
  • The source of the information if not collected from you directly;
  • If we are using your information for automated decision making or profiling.

Rectifying inaccuracies

If you feel the information we hold on you is inaccurate, you can ask us to correct or update it.

Right to be forgotten

You can request that we erase your information, although that might not always be possible if we have a legal obligation or legitimate interest to keep the information. We will explain the consequences of erasing your information.

Restrict the processing

If you feel we are processing your information unlawfully or with inaccurate data, you can ask us to restrict processing. Where personal information is subjected to restriction in this way, we will only process it with your consent, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Object to the processing

If you disagree with any legitimate interest or public interest we have relied on to process your information, you can object to the processing. We will then stop processing the information unless we can demonstrate a compelling legitimate ground that overrides your rights, or the processing is required to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim.

Data portability

In some circumstances, you have the right to receive personal information you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or (if technically feasible) to require us to transmit it to another controller

Make a complaint

We are committed to safeguarding your personal information and upholding your rights, but if you feel we have not done that, please contact us at info@fortifyclinic.com. Additionally, you have the right to complain to the relevant supervisory authority, which in the UK is the ICO.

Updates to this patient privacy notice

We may update this patient privacy notice from time to time and will publish any changes on our website at fortifyclinic.com.

This patient privacy notice was last updated in December 2024.