About Us: The Data Controller
Colchester Travel Clinic operates from Dedham Pharmacy, High St, Dedham, Colchester CO7 6DE. For the purposes of data protection law, Dedham Pharmacy is the data controller responsible for your personal information.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) . Our services are provided by a pharmacist registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), and we follow GPhC standards on confidentiality and record keeping.
If you have any questions about this policy, you can reach us on 01206 984433 or at the address above.
The Information We Collect About You
To give you safe travel health advice, we need to collect certain information. This usually includes:
- Your name, date of birth, address, phone number, and email
- Your travel plans, including destinations, dates, and activities
- Your medical history, allergies, and current medications
- Your vaccination history
- Details relevant to your appointment, such as pregnancy or existing health conditions
- Payment details when you pay for a service
- Information you share when you contact us or book online
Some of this is health information, which the law treats as a special category of data. We explain how we protect it further down this page.
What We Do with Your Information
We use your information to provide travel health care and to run our clinic properly. In practice, this means we use it to:
- Carry out your appointment and recommend the right vaccines or medications
- Administer vaccinations and supply medication safely
- Issue certificates, including the International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP) for yellow fever
- Keep accurate clinical records
- Contact you about your appointment, follow-up doses, or recall reminders
- Take payment for your treatment
- Meet our legal, professional, and regulatory duties
We do not use your information for marketing without your clear permission, and we never sell your data.
Why We Are Legally Allowed to Use Your Data
Data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for using your information. Depending on the situation, we rely on:
- Contract: we need your data to provide the service you have booked.
- Legal obligation: we are required to keep certain records and report certain information.
- Legitimate interests: for example, contacting you about a follow-up dose you have started.
- Consent: where you have given us clear permission, such as sharing information with your GP.
Because health information needs extra protection, we also rely on specific conditions in the law for special category data. The main one is the provision of health care by a regulated professional, under Article 9(2)(h) of the UK GDPR. In some cases we will ask for your explicit consent instead.
Sensitive Health Information: How We Protect It
Your health information is confidential. Only the pharmacist and trained clinic staff involved in your care can access it, and only when they need to.
We protect your records with secure systems, controlled access, and staff trained in confidentiality. Paper records, where used, are stored securely. Our handling of your data follows GPhC standards and UK data protection law. If we ever need to report a vaccine side effect, we do so through the MHRA Yellow Card scheme, and we share only what is necessary.
Who Else Sees Your Information
We keep the number of people who see your data to a minimum. In some situations, we may share it with:
- Your GP or other NHS services, usually with your consent, to keep your wider health record accurate
- Public health bodies, such as the UK Health Security Agency, where required for vaccination records or disease reporting
- The MHRA, if we report a suspected adverse reaction to a vaccine or medicine
- Trusted service providers who help us run the clinic, such as our booking system and IT support, under strict data protection agreements
- Regulators or authorities, where the law requires it
We do not share your information with anyone else without your permission, unless we are legally required to.
How Long We Hold Your Records
We keep your records only as long as we need to, following NHS and professional retention guidance.
In general, adult clinical records are kept for at least 8 years after your last appointment. Records for children are kept until their 25th birthday, or until their 26th if they were 17 at their last appointment.
Some vaccination records, such as those linked to yellow fever certification, may be kept longer. When records are no longer needed, we dispose of them securely.
Your Rights Over Your Personal Data
Under UK data protection law, you have the right to:
- Ask for a copy of the information we hold about you
- Ask us to correct information that is wrong or incomplete
- Ask us to delete your information, where there is no legal reason to keep it
- Ask us to restrict how we use your information
- Object to certain uses of your information
- Ask us to transfer your information to another provider, where this applies
- Withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent
To exercise these rights, contact us at 01206 984433 or our clinic address. We respond within one month of ID verification, though complex requests may take two additional months. This service is typically free.
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You can control or delete cookies through your browser settings. Blocking some cookies may affect how parts of the website work.
Updates to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time, for example if the law changes or we change how we work. The latest version will always be on this page, with the update date shown at the top. Please check back now and then.
Questions or Complaints
If you have a question about your data, or you are unhappy with how we have handled it, please contact us first so we can put things right. This is now the required first step before involving the regulator.
Colchester Travel Clinic, Dedham Pharmacy, High St, Dedham, Colchester CO7 6DE. Phone: 01206 984433.
We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and do our best to resolve it. If you are still not satisfied, you can then raise it with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator, at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF, on 0303 123 1113, or at ico.org.uk.