Privacy Policy

Experts in Skin & Hair is a private dermatology and hair clinic operating in Sussex, with clinics at Matlock Road Brighton, Nuffield Health Brighton, the Montefiore Hospital Hove and Nuffield Health Haywards Heath. For the purposes of UK data protection law (the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), Experts in Skin & Hair is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy.

If you have any questions about this policy or how your information is handled, contact us at hello@expertsinskinandhair.co.uk or on 01273 077222.

Identity and contact details: your name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address, collected when you register, book or contact us.

Health information: details of your symptoms, medical history, medications, examination findings, clinical photographs, test and histology results, treatment records and correspondence about your care. This is special category data and is handled with additional protections.

Appointment, billing and insurance details: appointments booked, invoices, payment records and, where you use private medical insurance, your insurer and policy/authorisation numbers.

Website information: if you use our contact form, the details you submit (including any photo you attach); and, only if you accept cookies, analytics and advertising data as described in the website section below.

To provide your care: assessing, diagnosing and treating you, keeping accurate medical records, writing to you about your care, and arranging follow-up. Our lawful basis is the provision of healthcare (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(h)) alongside the performance of our agreement with you.

To run the practice: managing appointments, sending confirmations and reminders, invoicing, processing insurance claims, and responding to enquiries and complaints. Our lawful bases are contract and our legitimate interests in running an effective clinic.

To meet our legal and professional obligations: including record-keeping standards, safeguarding, and responding to lawful requests from regulators such as the CQC or GMC.

We do not sell your information, and we do not use your medical information for marketing.

Your GP: it is good practice to keep your GP informed, but we will only share your information with your GP if you want them involved. You choose whether to give us their details.

Other healthcare providers involved in your care: the hospitals where you are seen (Nuffield Health, the Montefiore Hospital), laboratories and histology services analysing samples, and, for some prescriptions, secure online pharmacies who will contact you about payment and delivery.

Your insurer, where you use private medical insurance to pay for treatment.

Service providers who support the practice, such as our secure practice management and booking system, our website hosting and our secure IT and communications suppliers. They act under our instructions and cannot use your information for their own purposes.

Where required by law: for example, a court order or a statutory duty. We share the minimum necessary.

We keep medical records in line with UK guidance for healthcare records: generally at least 8 years after your last appointment for adults, and for children until their 25th birthday (or 26th if they were 17 at the end of treatment). Financial records are kept for at least 6 years. When records are no longer needed they are securely destroyed.

You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you (a subject access request), to have inaccurate information corrected, to ask us to restrict or object to certain uses, and in limited circumstances to ask for information to be deleted. Medical records are subject to professional record-keeping obligations, so we cannot usually delete clinical records on request, but we will always explain what applies.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@expertsinskinandhair.co.uk. We will respond within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to us, and you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113.

Our website only sets analytics and advertising cookies (Google Analytics and the Meta Pixel) if you accept them in the cookie banner. If you decline, nothing is tracked. You can change your choice at any time using the Cookie settings link in the footer, and full details are in our Cookie Policy.

If you use the contact form, your enquiry (including any photo you attach) is delivered securely to our practice inbox so we can respond to you. Please avoid sending detailed medical information through the form — it is intended for general enquiries, and clinical matters are best discussed at an appointment.

Letters, results and other documents about your care are shared with you through our secure patient portal rather than by unencrypted email.

Your records are held in secure, access-controlled systems, with information transmitted over encrypted connections. Access is limited to the clinical and administrative staff who need it for your care, and our staff are trained in confidentiality. Where we use third-party systems, we choose suppliers with appropriate security standards and written agreements in place.

We review this policy regularly and the version published on this page is the one that applies. If we make significant changes to how we use your information, we will update this page and, where appropriate, tell you directly.