Our privacy policy

Privacy is the confidentiality of your personal information and it is of paramount concern to Spire Healthcare.

We are registered with the Information Commissioner as required under the data protection laws in the United Kingdom and are committed to compliance with Data Protection legislation, Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) (Amendment) Regulations 2011 (UK Regulations), medical confidentiality and NHS Information Governance guidelines.

We have developed this policy because we want you to feel confident about the privacy and security of your personal information.

This privacy policy explains how Spire Healthcare uses any personal information we collect about you and your rights in relation to that information.

Spire Healthcare makes every effort to prevent unauthorised access to your personal information, complies with medical confidentiality and NHS Information Governance guidelines, and its obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 (the “Act”).

Please read this privacy policy carefully. By visiting http://www.spirehealthcare.com (the “Site”), you indicate your agreement for Spire Healthcare to use your personal information as set out in this privacy policy.

When we refer to “we”, “our” or “Spire Healthcare” in this policy we are referring to Spire Healthcare Limited whose registered office is at 3 Dorset Rise, London, EC4Y 8EN. For the purpose of the Act, Spire Healthcare is the data controller.

When we refer to “personal information” in this policy, we mean information which identifies you as an individual, or is capable of doing so. Accordingly, we may hold and use information about you in your capacity as a customer, a patient, or in any other capacity, for example, as a visitor to the Site. 

We may collect and process the following personal data about you:

Information you give us. You may give us information about you by filling in forms on the Site or by corresponding with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise. This includes information you provide when you enquire about any of our services, join GP Connect or submit a referral online, apply for a job with us or when you report a problem with the Site. The information you give us may include your name, address, e-mail address and/or phone number. It may also include sensitive personal data (such as information about your health) but only where you have explicitly consented to the terms of this policy.

Information we collect about you. With regard to each of your visits to the Site we may automatically collect the following information:

• technical information, including the Internet protocol (IP) address used to connect your computer to the Internet, your login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform;
• information about your visit, including the full Uniform Resource Locators (URL) clickstream to, through and from the Site; services you viewed or searched for; page response times, download errors, length of visits to certain pages, page interaction information (such as scrolling, clicks, and mouse-overs), and methods used to browse away from the page and any phone number used to call us.

Information we receive from other sources. We may receive information about you if you use any of the other websites we operate or the other services we provide. We are also working closely with third parties (including, for example, business partners, sub-contractors in technical, payment services, advertising networks, analytics providers, search information providers, credit reference agencies) and may receive information about you from them.

We use information held about you in the following ways:

Information you give to us.

We may use this information:

• to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us and to provide you with the information and services that you request from us;
• to provide you with information about other services we offer that are similar to those that you have already purchased or enquired about;
• to provide you, or permit selected third parties to provide you, with information about goods or services we feel may interest you. If you are an existing customer, we will only contact you by electronic means (e-mail or SMS) with information about goods and services similar to those which were the subject of a previous sale. If you are a new customer, and where we permit selected third parties to use your data, we (or they) will contact you by electronic means only if you have consented to this. If you do not want us to use your data in this way, or to pass your details on to third parties for marketing purposes, please tick the relevant box situated on the form on which we collect your data;
• to notify you about changes to our service;
• to ensure that content from the Site is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer.

Information we collect about you.

We will use this information:

• to administer and improve the Site;
• to allow you to participate in interactive features of our service, when you choose to do so;
• as part of our efforts to keep the Site safe and secure;
• to measure or understand the effectiveness of advertising we serve to you and others, and to deliver relevant advertising to you;

Information we receive from other sources. We may combine this information with information you give to us and information we collect about you. We may us this information and the combined information for the purposes set out above (depending on the types of information we receive).

Disclosure of your Information
We may share your personal information with any member of our group (each a “Group Company”), which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006.

We may share your information with selected third parties including:

• Analytics and search engine providers that assist us in the improvement and optimisation of the Site.
• If Spire Healthcare or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.
• Advertisers and advertising networks that require the data to select and serve relevant adverts to you and others.
• In the usual course of our business, we may use third parties to process your personal information on our behalf. Where a third party data processor is used, we will ensure that they operate under subject to contractual restrictions with regard to confidentiality and security in addition to obligations imposed by data protection legislation. 

We take appropriate organisational and technical security measures to protect the data that we hold against unauthorised disclosure or unlawful processing.

When using GP Connect, our online resource for GPs, any data that you submit is securely encrypted. We use a secure server to store the information you give us when you register, enquire or submit a referral online (including your password).

Other information which you submit online may not be subject to the same protection and you do so at your own risk.

You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you at any time, including copies of your health records (where relevant). 

If you would like a copy of some, or all, of your personal information, please contact your local Spire Healthcare hospital directly. We are entitled to make an administrative charge for this service.  We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to-date and you may ask us to correct or remove information you think is inaccurate.

We will only send you marketing information where you have provided your consent to receive it. This may include information about products and services provided by Spire Healthcare and other companies within the Spire Healthcare Group which may be of interest to you.

You have the right to stop us from contacting you for marketing purposes or giving your information to other members of the Spire Healthcare Group.

If you no longer wish to receive web-based marketing information, you can unsubscribe by clicking on the link within the email that has been sent to you. By clicking on this unsubscribe link it will update our contacts lists to ensure that we do not contact you again.

If you no longer wish to receive non-web based marketing information please contact your local Spire Healthcare hospital customer services team. Their contact details can be found on the “find or contact us” page of the hospital’s website.

The Site uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website.  A “cookie” is a small amount of data which often includes a unique identifier that is sent to your computer, tablet or mobile phone (referred to here as a "device") browser from a website's computer and is stored on your device's hard drive, mobile or other device.

There are different types of cookies which are used to do different things such as allowing you to navigate between pages on a website efficiently, remembering your preferences on a certain web pages, or improving your overall experience. Other cookies can provide you with advertising which is more tailored to your interests, or measure the number of site visits and the most popular pages users visit.

How to disable cookies
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but you can disable this function by changing your browser settings if you so wish. To find out more about cookies including what they are, how to control them or how to delete them, please visit www.aboutcookies.org.

Below is a list of the different types of cookies used across the Site, and a description of what they are used for.

First Party Cookies
First Party Cookies are cookies which Spire Healthcare uses. Spire Healthcare only uses sessional and persistent cookies when users access the careers or GP Connect sections of the Site. They are minimally intrusive. Spire Healthcare also uses cookies linked to Google Analytics but these are not traced to personal identifiable data and are non-intrusive.

Third Party cookies
The Site contains links to other third party websites. This means that when you click on the links to those websites you may be agreeing to the use of cookies from their websites. Spire Healthcare has identified the following third party cookies.

The Site contains links to other websites. This policy only applies to the Site so when you visit external websites please read their privacy policies carefully. Spire Healthcare accepts no responsibility for external websites.

We occasionally offer products or services for external companies. These organisations may also allocate cookies to your PC. The types of cookies they use and how they use this information will be governed by their privacy policies.

We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this webpage.

We may change the content or services found on the Site at any time without notice, and consequently our privacy policy may change at any time in the future. Your continued access to or use of the website will mean that you agree to the changes.

Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy:

• by email: dataprotection@spirehealthcare.com
• or write to us at: Privacy Policy Query,  Spire Healthcare Group plc, 3 Dorset Rise, London, EC4Y 8EN

This privacy policy was last updated on 29 July 2016.

This privacy policy should be read in conjunction with the Spire Healthcare website Terms and Conditions.