Privacy Policy

Last updated: 4 September 2026

Lyfe Health trading as Cowes Chiropractic Clinic is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information responsibly, securely and transparently.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, who we may share it with, how long we keep it and the rights you have in relation to your personal information.

1. Who We Are

Cowes Chiropractic Clinic is operated by Lyfe Health, trading as Cowes Chiropractic Clinic.

We provide chiropractic, physiotherapy, massage therapy, osteopathy, functional movement therapy and other healthcare and wellbeing services.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, Lyfe Health trading as Cowes Chiropractic Clinic is the data controller responsible for the personal information we process.

Cowes Chiropractic Clinic
24–26 Birmingham Road
Cowes
Isle of Wight
PO31 7BH

Telephone: 01983 282810
Email: cowes@themedical.co.uk

2. Information We Collect

When you contact us, book an appointment or receive treatment at the clinic, we may collect personal information including:

• Your name, address, date of birth and contact details
• Emergency contact information
• Appointment and booking information
• Medical history and information about your physical or mental health
• Information about symptoms, injuries, diagnoses, treatment and clinical progress
• Clinical notes, assessments, treatment plans and correspondence
• Photographs, scans or other clinical images where relevant to your treatment
• Information provided on consultation, consent or medical history forms
• Information about your GP or other healthcare professionals where relevant
• Details relating to medical insurers or other third-party payers
• Payment, invoice and transaction information
• Communications between you and the clinic
• Feedback, complaints or enquiries
• Your marketing preferences
• Technical information collected when you use our website, such as your IP address, browser information and cookies

Health information is classed as special category personal data under UK data protection law and is subject to additional protections.

3. How We Collect Your Information

We may collect personal information:

• Directly from you when you contact us, book or attend an appointment
• Through our website, contact forms or online booking system
• Through consultation, assessment and consent forms
• During your treatment and communications with our practitioners
• From another healthcare professional where you have been referred to us
• From a medical insurer or third-party payer where treatment is being funded through them
• From a parent, guardian or representative where appropriate

4. How We Use Your Information

We may use your personal information to:

• Provide safe and appropriate assessment, treatment and care
• Maintain accurate clinical records
• Manage appointments and send appointment confirmations or reminders
• Communicate with you about your treatment or ongoing care
• Process payments and issue invoices or receipts
• Administer claims involving medical insurers or other third-party funders
• Communicate with other healthcare professionals involved in your care where appropriate
• Manage enquiries, feedback or complaints
• Comply with professional, regulatory, legal and insurance obligations
• Manage and improve the operation of the clinic
• Maintain the security and functionality of our website and systems
• Send marketing communications where we have the appropriate permission or lawful basis to do so

5. Our Lawful Basis for Using Your Information

Under UK data protection law, we must have a lawful reason for processing your personal information.

Depending on the circumstances, we may process your information on the basis of:

Contract
Where processing is necessary in order to provide services you have requested from us.

Legitimate interests
Where processing is necessary for the effective and safe administration of the clinic, provided that those interests do not override your rights.

Legal obligation
Where we are required to process or retain certain information in order to comply with legal, regulatory or professional obligations.

Consent
Where appropriate, we may ask for your consent, for example for certain marketing activities. Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time.

Because clinical and health information receives additional legal protection, we will only process this information where an appropriate condition for processing special category data also applies.

This may include processing that is necessary for the provision of healthcare or treatment by, or under the responsibility of, an appropriately qualified healthcare professional who is subject to confidentiality obligations.

6. Who We May Share Your Information With

We will only share your personal information where there is a genuine and appropriate need to do so.

This may include:

• Practitioners involved in your assessment or treatment
• Authorised reception and administrative staff where necessary for their role
• Other healthcare professionals involved in your care
• Medical insurers or organisations funding your treatment
• Providers of our practice management, booking, communications and payment systems
• Accountants, bookkeepers and professional advisers
• IT, website and other service providers working on our behalf
• Professional or regulatory bodies where required
• Insurers and legal advisers where necessary
• Government agencies, courts, law enforcement bodies or other authorities where we are legally required to provide information

Access to clinical information is restricted to individuals who have an appropriate reason to access it.

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

Where we use external service providers to process information on our behalf, we take reasonable steps to ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your information.

7. Medical Insurers and Third-Party Payments

Where your treatment is being funded by a medical insurer, employer or another third party, we may need to share relevant information with them in order to:

• Confirm treatment authorisation
• Administer your claim
• Process invoices
• Confirm treatment provided
• Meet the requirements of the insurer or funder

We will only provide information that is reasonably necessary for these purposes and will continue to respect the confidentiality of your clinical information.

8. Keeping Your Information Secure

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure.

This may include:

• Restricting access to information according to staff roles
• Appropriate password and account security controls
• Secure electronic practice management systems
• Secure storage of clinical records
• Appropriate safeguards when information is shared
• Taking reasonable steps to ensure third-party systems used by the clinic provide suitable data protection safeguards

All healthcare practitioners are also required to comply with their professional confidentiality obligations.

9. How Long We Keep Your Information

We keep personal information only for as long as it is reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected and to meet our legal, regulatory, professional and insurance obligations.

Clinical records may need to be retained for a number of years after your treatment ends.

For chiropractic patient records, records will generally be retained for at least eight years from the date of your last treatment.

Where the patient is a child or young person, records may need to be retained for longer in accordance with applicable professional guidance.

Other types of information may be retained for different periods depending on the nature of the information and the legal, professional or administrative requirements that apply.

Once information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted, destroyed or anonymised where appropriate.

10. Marketing Communications

We may occasionally contact you about clinic news, services, offers or other information that may be relevant to you where we have an appropriate lawful basis to do so.

Where consent is required, we will ask for it.

You can change your marketing preferences or unsubscribe at any time by contacting us or by using the unsubscribe option contained within relevant marketing communications.

Choosing not to receive marketing communications will not prevent us from contacting you about:

• Your appointments
• Your treatment
• Payments
• Clinical matters
• Other necessary administrative communications

11. Cookies and Our Website

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Make the website function correctly
• Improve website performance
• Understand how visitors use the website
• Improve the experience of visitors

You can find further information about the cookies used on this website and the choices available to you in our separate Cookie Policy.

Our website may also contain links to external websites.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third-party websites and recommend reviewing their privacy policies when visiting them.

12. Your Rights

Depending on the circumstances, you may have rights in relation to your personal information, including the right to:

• Request access to the personal information we hold about you
• Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information
• Request deletion of your information where we no longer have a lawful reason to retain it
• Request that we restrict how your information is used
• Object to certain uses of your information
• Request transfer of certain information to you or another organisation
• Withdraw consent where our processing relies on consent
• Complain about the way your personal information has been handled

Some of these rights are subject to legal, professional and clinical record-keeping requirements.

For example, we may not be able to delete clinical records where we have a legal, professional or insurance obligation to retain them.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below.

13. Children and Young People

We provide treatment to patients of different ages and may therefore process personal information relating to children and young people.

Where appropriate, information may be provided by or shared with a parent, guardian or person with parental responsibility.

We will take into account the patient’s:

• Age
• Capacity
• Confidentiality rights
• Best interests
• Applicable legal and professional obligations

when deciding how their information should be handled.

14. Complaints and Feedback

If you raise a complaint, concern or provide feedback to the clinic, we may keep records relating to the matter and our response.

We will only use this information for purposes including:

• Investigating and responding to the complaint
• Improving our services
• Meeting legal, professional or regulatory obligations
• Protecting the interests of the clinic, practitioners and patients where appropriate

For information about how to raise a complaint about the services provided by the clinic, please see our separate Complaints Procedure.

15. Changes to This Privacy Policy

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

• Our services
• Our systems
• Our legal or regulatory obligations
• The way we handle personal information

The latest version will always be published on our website.

16. Questions or Complaints About Your Personal Information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, would like to exercise your data protection rights or believe your personal information has not been handled appropriately, please contact us:

Lyfe Health trading as Cowes Chiropractic Clinic
24–26 Birmingham Road
Cowes
Isle of Wight
PO31 7BH

Telephone: 01983 282810
Email: cowes@themedical.co.uk

If you are dissatisfied with our response, you also have the right to raise a concern with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent data protection regulator.