What information do we collect

We will only collect the minimum amount of information needed to help with your treatment. This will include details of your previous medical history which includes information may not appear to be relevant to your problem, however we do this to establish whether there are other medical factors which may influence your treatment. We may also ask you for information on other members of your family, along with their medical history, again we do this to establish any additional factors which may be relevant in your treatment.

As mentioned above, at times some of the information may not appear to be relevant to your problem, however we always ask for information for a specific reason.

How is information collected?

We collect information in a number of ways:

• Some information (such as your contact details) are collected when you book your appointment.

• We use email forms to collect information about your current complaint, your general health, your job role and hobbies along with your medical history.

• We use a separate email form to gather information about your current state of health with regards to COVID-19.

• Any additional information that we require we gather either by telephone or during your consultation.

Why is it being collected?

Some of the information we gather is for the purposes of contacting you.  This is used to either send you appointment reminder details, or contact you with information regarding your treatment.

We also gather information to perform a COVID-19 risk assessment (this is a requirement of our governing body).

Any additional information we gather is purely based around your treatment.

We never pass information on to third parties without your express permission.

How is your information stored

All the information we gather is stored on specific software (Cliniko) designed for recording therapy notes.  It is secured by password and can not be accessed by anyone outside of our clinic team.  All team members at both Colchester Physiotherapy and Ipswich Physiotherapy are able to access your clinic notes. Only current team members have access to clinic notes, team members who no longer work at our clinics, do not have access to any of our systems and therefore cannot gain access to clinic notes.

Any third party reports that you bring in for us are scanned and uploaded to your notes and then either returned to you or destroyed.

How will your information be used?

The information we collect is only used for your treatment.  At times, some of the information we ask for may seem a bit strange (or unrelated) to your treatment.  We use a variety of information to both rule in and rule out various conditions.  If you are unsure of why a particular piece of information is relevant to your treatment then please ask us - we will be more than happy to explain its relevance.

We may at times use your information to contact you about your treatment, we may do this via email, telephone call, text message or written letter.

We do not use your information for clinic marketing, but we will ask you to opt in to a clinic newsletter either in person, at your appointment or via an opt in email, every clinic newsletter will have a clear opt out/unsubscribe option. We may also ask you to leave a review of our clinic services via email.

Occasionally we may need to share some of your information with other medical professions - we will never do this without your permission.

On very rare occasions we may contact you to inform you of important changes to our clinical practice (for example a change of clinic address).