Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Andrews Meadows Veterinary Surgery (“we,”, “us”, or Andrews Meadows” is an independent small animal veterinary practice offering first opinion and referral health care provisions.

At Andrews Meadows Veterinary Surgery, we recognize that it is important for you to understand how we use your personal data. This Privacy Policy  tells you how we collect and process your personal information in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. It also provides the legal basis we use to process this date when you a) register as a client b) purchase our products and services c) use our website.

We only use personal data in ways that are consistent with our obligations and your rights under data protection laws. If you have any questions about this privacy notice or about how your personal data is used, please contact Andrews Meadows Veterinary Surgery at [email protected] or [telephone number].

 

1.Data Controller

Andrews Meadows Consultancy Ltd is the data controller responsible for the collection, storage and processing of your personal data.

 

2.Data protection principles

We can only collect data about you if:

  • we inform you what information we have collected
  • the purposes for which we use that information have been explained to you
  • the information is used in a lawful and transparent manner
  • Kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have explained to you
  • Kept securely, accurate and up to date.

 

3.Type of information we collect

We collect and process personal data that you provide to us when using our veterinary services or interact with our website.

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Pet’s name, species, breed, age and medical history
  • Communications and correspondence with us
  • Payment and billing information

4. Legal basis for processing Personal data.

Personal information can be collected and processed on the basis of:

  • A contractual agreement. We process your data to allow us to meet our contractual obligations as part of delivering our services to you such as scheduling appointments, diagnosing and treating your pet and processing payments.
  • Legitimate interest. In some scenarios, it is a legitimate interest to be able to communicate information to registered clients regarding certain matters such as animal health and welfare, maintaining client relationships, providing veterinary care and improving our services. We ensure that our legitimate interest are not overridden by your rights and freedoms.
  • Consent. In certain situations, we may ask for you explicit consent to process your personal data for specific purposes such as sending marketing material or communicating with another veterinary practice.
  • Compliance with legal obligations: We may process your data to comply with legal obligations such as responding to legal requests, reporting infectious diseases or adverse events.

 

5.  How the information is collected

  • Information you provide to us directly when you register at the practice
  • Personal data we collect or generate about you when you use our website
  • Personal data from other sources. For example, if you use other service providers such as Facebook od other websites that interact with us. By interacting with us, you are aware and agree to the sharing or your personal information such as name and contact details.

 

6. Use of personal Data by Andrews Meadows Veterinary Surgery

When we use your personal data, we are required to identify and maintain a valid lawful basis for the processing.  

  1. To administer your account as a practice client (Contractual). This allows us to meet our contractual obligations as part of delivering our services to you.  This information will be used to:
  • Provide veterinary services including appointments, treatments and follow up care.
  • Communicate with you about the health of your pet, test results, appointments and other related matters.
  • Send reminders about your pet’s treatments and vaccinations
  • To communicate with you about those services you request from us e.g. to book or change an appointment.
  • Maintaining accurate medical records and histories of your pet’s health
  • To notify you about changes to our services and terms and conditions.
  • Comply with a legal obligations including reporting infectious diseases, adverse events or responding to legal requests from a law enforcement agency.
  • Responding to your inquiries, requests or complaints
  • Conducting internal research, analysis and improvement of our veterinary services.
  • For administrative or business purposes when you have contacted us about a reason other than those listed above. We have a legitimate interest to respond to your contract for the purposes of administering our business.
  • To process payments for products and services we provide to you including managing payments, fees and charges

 

  1. To send you marketing communications as a registered client (Legitimate interest). Personal data may be used to:
  • Send marketing communications such as newsletters that provide, information on pet health and animal welfare, updates on services and promotions, updates on practice building progression and invites to practice events. Newsletters may be sent via email, text message or post.
  • To assess the quality and effectiveness of our services, including client satisfaction. It is a legitimate interest to the practice to measure client satisfaction and identify client issues.

The above communications are only sent to clients that are registered at Andrews Meadows Veterinary Surgery. You can amend your preferences or opt out of the above communications at any time by:

  • using the unsubscribe links within the communications
  • contacting the practice on  [email protected]
  • contacting the practice by calling [telephone number]

 

  1. Disclosure of personal data with third parties

 

We do not sell, rent or exchange your personal information with any third party for commercial reasons. We provide information to third parties to the extent that it allows us to meet our contractual obligations as part of delivering our service to you.  

  • With insurance companies with whom your pet is insured (we will pass on your name and address and your pet’s clinical history to the insurance company to allow them to process your claim) or with whom we or our personnel are insured in the event of any incidents involving your pet
  • IT providers who support our IT systems including our site and practice management system
  • Other veterinary professionals such as specialist referrals and after hours providers. In a non-emergency situation, we will provide your contact details and pet’s clinical history to the nominated practice with your consent.
  • Debit/Credit card providers during payment processing
  • External laboratory submissions for diagnostic tests or analysis.
  • Regulatory bodies, government agencies, or law enforcement entities as required by law or to protect out legal interests.
  • Debt collection agency for collecting and recovering money owed to us. We have a legitimate interest to recover debt owed to us.
  • Service providers and contractors assisting us with practice management, IT infrastructure and other administrative functions.
  • Providing your name and contact details and pet’s clinical history to a third party (alternative veterinary practice) in an emergency situation. This action is justified on animal welfare grounds.
  • Microchipping: it is now a legal requirement for dogs and cats in the UK to be microchipped and for the pet’s microchip number to be registered with microchip provider. We will provide your name, address and contact details with the microchip provider.
  • With third party suppliers who we work with in order to deliver services such as:
  • data partners that support us with analysis and insights to improve the service we offer
  • direct marketing companies who enable us to communicate with you
  • social media companies for the purposes of marketing and advertisement as well as receiving feedback on our services.
  • With any other third party where you have consented to such disclosure.

 

7.Cookies

Cookies are small pieces of data that a website, visited by a user, asks your browser to store on your device to remember information about you. This allows us to understand how people use the website and the pages that are visited.  We do not capture personal information about visitors to the website with these tools. Please see our website policy for more information.

We engage with a third party, Calm digital, to maintain the security and performance of the website. To deliver this service it processes IP addresses (a number assigned to each of your devices connected to the internet by your broadband provider) of visitors to the Andrews Meadows website.

 

8. Data Retention

We will only retain your personal information for as long as is necessary including for the purposes of any legal, tax, health and safety, reporting or accounting requirements. Our personal liability insurance requires we store past client records for seven years. This includes your name and address and contact details as well as your pets clinical history.

 

9. Data Security

We take appropriate physical, technical, operational and administrative measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access, loss, misuse or alteration as required by law and in accordance with good industry practice.  We have implemented electronic and administrative safeguards to ensure the security and confidentiality of your data.

In addition, we limit access to your personal information to those employees, partners, workers, agents, contractors or other third parties who have a business need to know in order to perform their job duties and responsibilities.

10. You have certain rights regarding your personal data under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. These rights include:

  • Right to be informed about how your personal information will be processed. This information is provided within this notice.
  • Right of Access (data subject access request). You have the right to request access to the personal data we hold about you. We will provide you with a copy of your personal data upon verification of your identify. In certain circumstances, we may be unable to provide access to specific pieces of information if it involves disclosing personal data of another individual or is subject to legal restrictions.
  • Right to rectification of the personal information that we hold about you.

It is important that the personal information we hold about you is accurate and up to date. We encourage you to promptly inform us of any changes or inaccuracies in your personal data so that we can amend our records.

  • Right to erasure. This allows you to request that we delete or remove personal information we hold about you. The right is not absolute and applies only in specific circumstances, such as when the personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, you withdraw your consent or the processing is based on a legitimate interests and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for processing.
  • Right to object to processing of your personal information in certain circumstances, including  processing where we are relying on a legitimate interest or marketing purposes. If you object to such processing, we will no longer process your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms or if the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
  • Right to restriction of processing. This enables you to restrict the processing of personal information such as when you contest the accuracy of the data or when processing is unlawful, but you oppose its erasure.
  • Right to data portability. You have the right to request a copy of your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. You may also have the right to transmit this data to another data controller (third party) without hindrance from us.
  • Right to object to automated processing. We do not engage in automated decision making or profiling activities that significantly affect you without your explicit consent.

 

11.Complaints

If you have any queries or concerns about the way we handle your data, we would encourage you to contact us so that we can attempt to put things right. Please contact us at [email protected] or call us on [phone number].

If you are still not happy with how the situation has been handled in relation to your rights or concerns, you also have the right to make a complaint to the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

The ICO can be contacted at: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF. Tel:03031231113 or https://ico.org.uk/

 

12. Updates to the Privacy Policy

From time to time, we may update the privacy policy to reflect changes in our data processing practices and legal obligations. We will notify of any material changes to this Privacy Policy by posting a prominent notice on our website or by other means.

Last updated 10/02/2025