Privacy Policy

Who we are

St Albans Neuro Physio provides neurological physiotherapy in patients' homes across St Albans and Hertfordshire.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, St Albans Neuro Physio is the data controller for the information described below. You can reach us at info@stalbansneurophysio.co.uk or on 01727 293088.

What we collect

When you send an enquiry through this website, we collect your name, phone number, email address (if you give one), the type of help you are looking for, and anything you choose to write in the message box. That message often includes health information about you or a family member.

If you become a patient, we also collect the clinical information needed to treat you safely: your medical history, assessment findings, treatment notes, and progress records.

This website does not display advertising on its own pages. Our server keeps short-term technical logs so that we can keep the site running and secure. These are not used to build a profile of you or to target advertising, and they are kept only as long as we need them for that purpose.

We use Google Search Console, which reports which Google searches this site appeared in. It reports anonymous totals only; it never identifies you and it does not place anything on your device.

Cookies and advertising

This site needs no cookies to function. If you do nothing, nothing is stored on your device except a note of the choice you make about the banner described below.

We advertise on Google Search. To know whether that money is achieving anything we have to be able to see which advert led to an enquiry, and that means Google recognising the same browser across the advert click and the enquiry. That is not something we are willing to do quietly, so:

• We ask first. A banner appears on your first visit. Nothing is loaded from Google — not so much as a request to their servers — unless and until you press Accept.
• Reject is a real option. It is the same size, in the same place, and takes the same single click as Accept. The site behaves identically afterwards and so do we.
• You can change your mind. "Cookie settings" at the foot of any page reopens the banner.
• We ask again periodically. Your choice lapses after six months rather than standing forever.

If you accept, Google Ads sets cookies that let it match your visit to an advert you clicked, and we record two events: that an enquiry form was submitted, and that a phone number was tapped. Google is not sent your name, your phone number, your email address, or anything you typed into the message box. For this advertising data Google acts as a controller in its own right; what it does with the data is set out in Google's business privacy notice.

Our lawful basis for these cookies is your consent — regulation 6 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, and Article 6(1)(a) UK GDPR. Refusing has no effect on any enquiry you send or any treatment you receive.

If we add anything else served by another company, we will update this page, and where it stores something on your device we will ask your permission first.

Why we can use it (lawful basis)

Health information is "special category data" and needs a higher level of justification. Ours is:

• Enquiries: we rely on your consent (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a) and Article 9(2)(a)). You give this by ticking the consent box on the enquiry form, and you can withdraw it at any time.
• Treatment: once you are a patient, we rely on Article 6(1)(b) (performing our contract with you) and Article 9(2)(h), the provision of health care by a regulated professional under a duty of confidentiality.
• Records retention: Article 6(1)(c), to meet our legal and professional record-keeping obligations.

Who sees it

Only the physiotherapist treating you routinely sees your information. We do not sell your data, and we do not share it for marketing.

We share information only where:

• You ask us to, for example sending a progress report to your GP or consultant;
• It is needed for your care and you have agreed;
• We are required to by law, or there is a serious risk to someone's safety.

This website and the enquiry form run on our own server in the United Kingdom, so your enquiry is not passed to a third-party form provider. Two service providers do handle it on our behalf, acting on our instructions and unable to use your information for their own purposes:

• Our email provider (Zoho), which delivers your enquiry to our inbox;
• A secure messaging service (Telegram), which alerts us that an enquiry has arrived so that an urgent one is not missed.

If you would rather not have your details pass through either, please phone us on 01727 293088 instead of using the form.

How long we keep it

Enquiries that do not become patients are deleted within 12 months.

Patient clinical records are retained for 8 years after your last appointment, in line with professional guidance for adult health records. For patients under 18, records are kept until their 25th birthday.

How we protect it

Information is held on password-protected, encrypted devices and accounts. Paper notes, where they exist, are stored securely. Enquiry data is transmitted over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to ask us to:

• Give you a copy of the information we hold about you;
• Correct anything that is wrong;
• Delete information, where we are not required to keep it;
• Restrict or object to how we use it;
• Withdraw consent you previously gave.

Email info@stalbansneurophysio.co.uk and we will respond within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to put things right first.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we handle your information we will update this page and revise the date at the top.