Privacy Policy

Here you will find information on how we use personal information and how we protect privacy in line with the General Data Protection Regulations (2018)

Who are we? There are several separate businesses within the umbrella of the Herbarium. The shop and herbal dispensary forms one business and there are also separate independent complementary medicine practitioners working within the clinic.

What sort of information is involved? Information held by the practitioners, shop and herbal dispensary may include names, dates of birth, postal addresses, telephone and email details. Practitioners may also keep details of current and past health recorded in client notes, together with their treatment and progress

Where does this information come from? The information that we hold is provided voluntarily
• by clients during consultations
• by customers or clients signing up for shop or clinic activities such as workshops, newsletters and courses
• by customers or clients booking, purchasing or enquiring about our products or services
• by customers or clients signing up for marketing information

Why do we need to hold this information? Complementary healthcare practitioners are advised to keep accurate and up-to-date records of consultations by their Professional Associations. The shop needs customer contact details to provide information about shop or clinic activities and to handle customer orders. The shop also needs client contact details to handle bookings for the practitioners.

What do we use personal information for? The practitioners use the healthcare information to create client case notes and help them to understand and keep track of their clients’ health issues. Contact details supplied to practitioners will be used to contact clients as appropriate for purposes relating to their treatment. For example, we may get in touch with appointment reminders or to check on progress. The practitioner may also use contact details to send out information about significant changes to their services, such as a change of address. If clients have specifically opted in, they may use contact details to send out marketing information, such as newsletters.

The shop and dispensary uses contact details supplied to it to contact customers as appropriate to the purpose for which the information was shared. For example, if a customer has signed up for information about clinic activities, we may email out the dates of our workshops. We may phone clients of our practitioners to make bookings or appointment reminders, or to check details for a repeat prescription. We may ring to inform a customer that the product they ordered has arrived. For those that specifically agree to opt in, contact data may also be used to circulate marketing materials such as newsletters or information about new services and products. For those that specifically agree to opt in, contact data may also be used to circulate marketing materials such as newsletters or information about new services and products. We do not share our customer or client data with other companies outside the Herbarium. None of the businesses within the Herbarium electronically process data to make decisions about using it.

Clients and customers often contact us via email to share personal information. We do our best to protect your privacy and handle such material with care and respect. However clients and customers should be aware that email is not a secure medium of communication unless encrypted. We are happy to use password protection for email attachments if requested.

How secure is our information? Paper records are stored securely and any electronic records are password protected on both the local machine and on any cloud services used for backup.

Do we share information with anyone else?
• Practitioners may share a client’s herbal prescription, date of birth and contact details with the dispensary team so that they can dispense their medicines and manage the booking of appointments.
• In order to ensure the best standard of care, practitioners may review treatment with other members of our clinic team unless the client instructs them not to.
• Practitioners may sometimes use client’s information, with their permission, to contact other healthcare providers (for example, general practitioners or hospital specialists). Such permission can be cancelled at any time. Otherwise, except in very serious circumstances when we are required to do so, the Herbarium and its practitioners will not share any personal information with other people without prior agreement. Any correspondence we may receive from other people involved in our clients’ healthcare will be kept securely with each client’s records and not shared with others.

How long do we keep information? In line with standard medical practice, practitioners keep their records for a minimum of seven years from the last date of contact. After this time we may securely destroy or erase records if we believe that they are no longer needed. Other contact details held by the shop and dispensary will be kept no longer than necessary.

Can customers and clients see their information? Yes, everyone is entitled to see any information that we have about them or to request a copy. There is no charge for this service.

Can customers and clients change their information? If they feel that their information is inaccurate or incomplete we can add information to the record to indicate this. We will note that this has been done at their request.

What if customers or clients are unhappy about how we are using their information? We are happy to try and resolve any concerns. Our contact details can be found below. Issues involving GDPR can also be discussed with the Information Commissioners Office via their public helpline number on 0303 123 1113

Changes to this Privacy Notice We keep our privacy notice under regular review. This privacy notice was last updated on 30 Dec 2020

How to contact us
Robyn James MNIMH - Medical Herbalist
Nether Edge Herbarium
386 Abbeydale Road
Sheffield
S7 1FP
Telephone 0114 255 0022