Privacy Policy

​Nova Women’s Health Clinic respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

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This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect your personal data when you visit our website, contact the clinic, make an appointment or receive healthcare services from us.

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1. Who We Are

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For the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, and the Data Protection Act 2018, the data controller is:

Nova Women’s Health Clinic
Number 4, Constitution Lane
Market Street
Clonmel
County Tipperary
Ireland
E91 P9X4

Clinical lead: Dr Besma Al Najdi
Email: besma.alnajdi@gmail.com
Telephone: 086 343 3745

As data controller, Nova Women’s Health Clinic determines how and why your personal data is processed.

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2. The Information We Collect

The information we collect will depend on how you interact with the clinic.

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Contact and identification information

This may include:

• Your name

• Date of birth

• Address

• Email address

• Telephone number

• Emergency contact or next-of-kin details

• Details of a parent or guardian, where appropriate

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Appointment and administrative information

This may include:

• Appointment dates and times

• The service or consultation booked

• Appointment confirmations and reminders

• Cancellation or rescheduling information

• Referral information

• Correspondence with the clinic

• Records of telephone calls, emails and website enquiries

 

Medical and health information

To provide appropriate healthcare, we may collect information including:

• Your medical history

• Current symptoms and health concerns

• Medications and allergies

• Pregnancy, fertility, menstrual, sexual and reproductive health information

• Examination findings

• Diagnoses and clinical opinions

• Test results, scan images and reports

• Treatment plans and clinical notes

• Information provided by your GP, consultant, hospital, laboratory or another healthcare professional

• Information about previous or ongoing healthcare treatment

Medical and health information is considered special-category personal data and is handled with additional care and confidentiality.

 

Payment information

Where a payment or deposit is required, we may process:

• Payment status

• Transaction reference

• Amount paid or refunded

• Billing information

• Details relating to outstanding balances

Payments may be processed securely by a third-party payment provider. Nova Women’s Health Clinic does not normally receive or store your complete debit or credit card number.

 

Website and technical information

When you use our website, certain technical information may be collected automatically, including:

• Internet Protocol address

• Browser and device type

• Pages visited

• Date and time of visits

• General website usage information

• Cookie preferences

Further information is provided in the Cookies section of this policy.

 

3. How We Collect Your Information

We may collect personal information:

• Directly from you

• When you contact us by telephone, email or website form

• When you book an appointment online

• When you attend the clinic

• When you complete a registration, consent or medical-history form

• During a consultation, examination, scan or treatment

• From a parent, guardian or representative

• From your GP, consultant, hospital, laboratory, pharmacy or another healthcare provider

• From an online booking, clinic-management or payment provider

• From website cookies and similar technologies

Please avoid submitting detailed or highly sensitive medical information through the general website contact form unless it is necessary for your enquiry.

The website contact form should not be used for urgent medical concerns or emergencies.

 

4. How We Use Your Information

We may use your personal information to:

• Respond to enquiries

• Register you as a patient

• Arrange, manage and confirm appointments

• Send appointment reminders and service communications

• Provide consultations, examinations, scans and healthcare services

• Review your medical history and assess your healthcare needs

• Maintain accurate clinical and patient records

• Prepare referrals, prescriptions, reports or correspondence

• Communicate with your GP, consultant, hospital, laboratory or other healthcare professional where appropriate

• Process payments, deposits and refunds

• Manage cancellations and missed appointments

• Meet professional, regulatory, insurance and legal requirements

• Protect the safety of patients, staff and the public

• Investigate complaints or concerns

• Manage and improve the clinic and its services

• Maintain the security and functionality of our website and systems

• Send marketing information where you have agreed to receive it

Appointment confirmations, clinical communications and service messages are not considered marketing communications.

 

5. Our Legal Bases for Processing

Under GDPR, we must have a lawful basis for processing personal data.

Depending on the circumstances, we may process your personal data because:

• It is necessary to take steps at your request before providing a healthcare service

• It is necessary to provide and manage the service you have requested

• We must comply with a legal or regulatory obligation

• It is necessary for our legitimate interests in operating and protecting the clinic, provided those interests do not override your rights

• You have given your consent for a specific purpose

• It is necessary to establish, exercise or defend a legal claim

• It is necessary to protect someone’s vital interests in an emergency

 

Health and medical information

We generally process health information because it is necessary for:

• Medical diagnosis

• The provision of healthcare or treatment

• Preventive medicine

• Managing healthcare services

• Maintaining appropriate clinical records

This information is processed by, or under the responsibility of, healthcare professionals who are subject to professional confidentiality obligations.

In certain circumstances, we may rely on your explicit consent or another legal condition permitted under data-protection law.

Consent is not always the legal basis used for essential clinical record-keeping. This means that withdrawing consent may not require us to delete information that we are legally or professionally required to retain.

 

6. Appointment Bookings and Clinic-Management Systems

We may use Pabau or another specialist clinic-management provider to facilitate:

• Online appointment bookings

• Patient registration

• Appointment reminders

• Medical forms

• Clinical records

• Invoices, payments and deposits

• Patient communications

• Day-to-day clinic administration

When these services process personal information on our behalf, they are required to process it only in accordance with our instructions, their contractual obligations and applicable data-protection law.

When you leave our website and use a third-party booking or payment service, that provider may also collect certain information under its own privacy policy.

 

7. Sharing Your Information

We do not sell your personal information.

We may share relevant information with:

• Doctors, nurses and authorised clinic personnel involved in your care

• Your GP, consultant, hospital or other healthcare professional

• Laboratories, pharmacies, diagnostic providers and imaging services

• Pabau or another clinic-management and booking provider

• Payment processors, including Stripe where applicable

• Wix, which provides website hosting and related website services

• Secure email, communications, IT-support and data-storage providers

• Accountants, insurers, professional advisers and legal representatives

• Professional or regulatory bodies

• Public authorities, courts or law-enforcement agencies where legally required

• Emergency services where necessary to protect someone’s vital interests

Only information that is reasonably necessary for the particular purpose will be shared.

Where possible and appropriate, we will discuss clinical information sharing with you. However, information may be shared without consent where required by law, where necessary to protect a person from serious harm or where another lawful basis applies.

 

8. International Data Transfers

Some of our technology or service providers may store or process information outside Ireland or the European Economic Area.

Where personal data is transferred internationally, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place. These may include:

• A European Commission adequacy decision

• Standard Contractual Clauses

• Contractual, organisational and technical security measures

• Another transfer mechanism permitted under data-protection law

 

9. How Long We Keep Your Information

We retain personal data only for as long as it is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and to meet our legal, professional, clinical, insurance and regulatory responsibilities.

Retention periods may vary depending on the type of information.

For example:

• Medical and clinical records will be retained in accordance with applicable healthcare, professional and legal requirements

• Financial and transaction records will be kept for the period required under tax and accounting law

• General enquiries that do not result in an appointment may be deleted when they are no longer required

• Marketing information will normally be retained until you unsubscribe or withdraw your consent

• Complaint and legal records may be retained while a matter is being investigated and for an appropriate period afterwards

Information may be retained for longer where required in connection with a legal claim, regulatory investigation or safeguarding concern.

 

10. Keeping Your Information Secure

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information from:

• Unauthorised access

• Accidental loss

• Improper use

• Alteration

• Disclosure

• Destruction

These measures may include access controls, passwords, secure systems, confidentiality procedures, staff access restrictions, system monitoring and secure record storage.

Access to patient information is limited to people who need it to perform their duties.

Although we take appropriate precautions, no website, email system or electronic storage method can be guaranteed to be completely secure. Please do not use ordinary email or the website contact form to send information requiring immediate medical attention.

 

11. Cookies

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies.

Cookies are small files stored on your computer, phone or other device. They may be used to:

• Allow the website to function correctly

• Remember your preferences

• Maintain website security

• Understand how visitors use the website

• Improve website performance

• Support embedded services or social-media features

Some cookies are strictly necessary for the website to operate and may not require consent.

Analytics, advertising and other non-essential cookies will only be activated where required consent has been obtained through the website’s cookie settings or consent banner.

You can change your cookie preferences through the website’s cookie settings or your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect how the website works.

 

12. Marketing Communications

We will only send promotional or marketing communications where we have an appropriate legal basis, such as your consent.

You can unsubscribe at any time by:

• Using the unsubscribe option included in the communication

• Contacting us by email

• Contacting the clinic by telephone

Withdrawing from marketing will not prevent us from sending necessary appointment, payment, clinical or administrative communications.

We will not use your health information for marketing without an appropriate legal basis and any additional consent required by law.

 

13. Children and Young People

Where we provide services to a person under 18, we may collect information about the child or young person and their parent or guardian.

Depending on the person’s age, maturity, circumstances and the healthcare service involved, we may communicate with:

• The young person

• Their parent or legal guardian

• Another person authorised to act on their behalf

We will handle the information of children and young people carefully and in accordance with applicable consent, confidentiality, safeguarding and data-protection requirements.

 

14. Your Data-Protection Rights

Subject to certain conditions and legal limitations, you may have the right to:

• Be informed about how your data is used

• Request access to your personal data

• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information

• Request deletion of certain information

• Request that processing be restricted

• Object to certain processing

• Receive certain information in a portable format

• Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent

• Object to direct marketing

• Make a complaint to the Data Protection Commission

These rights are not absolute.

For example, we may be required to retain clinical records even where a deletion request is made. Clinical opinions or notes will not necessarily be altered simply because a patient disagrees with them, although factual inaccuracies may be corrected and an additional statement may sometimes be added.

We may need to verify your identity before responding to a request. We will normally respond within the timeframe required by data-protection law.

 

15. Automated Decision-Making

Nova Women’s Health Clinic does not use personal data to make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects for patients.

 

16. Links to Other Websites

Our website may contain links to external websites, booking platforms, payment services and social-media pages.

Nova Women’s Health Clinic is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of external websites. You should review the privacy information provided by those services before submitting personal data.

 

17. Complaints

Please contact us first if you have a concern about how your personal information has been handled. We will take your concern seriously and will try to resolve it.

You also have the right to complain to the Irish supervisory authority:

Data Protection Commission
6 Pembroke Row
Dublin 2
D02 X963
Ireland

Contact information and complaint forms are available through the Data Protection Commission’s official website.

 

18. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in:

• Our services

• Our systems and service providers

• Data-protection law

• Regulatory or professional guidance

• How we process personal information

The latest version will be published on our website with the date it was last updated.

 

19. Contact Us

For questions about this Privacy Policy, to exercise your data-protection rights or to raise a privacy concern, please contact:

Nova Women’s Health Clinic
Number 4, Constitution Lane
Market Street
Clonmel
County Tipperary
Ireland
E91 P9X4

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Email: besma.alnajdi@gmail.com
Telephone: 086 343 3745