PRIVACY POLICY

The Healing Tree (also referred to as “we”, “us”, “THT”) takes your privacy very seriously and that was why we designed this privacy policy. We demonstrate our transparency with this policy that documents all information we would acquire from you, how we would use it and the measures we have in place to protect that information. Your information could be used on this website or on our mobile app (referred to as “The Healing Tree Mobile App” or “our App”). Your use of any of our website or App, which link to this policy is subject to this Privacy Policy.

Other services offered by “Shree Krishna Hospital” may have their own policies and we would request you to refer to the policies of that particular service.

What do we mean by information?

Information refers to any data that could be used to identify you. Examples of this would be your name, phone number, gender, address, etc. We could ask for such data either during the registration or during the usage of our website or App.

How do we get this information?

(It is important to note that any information freely available on public domains accessible under the Right to Information Act, 2009 is exempted from being the categories of personal information/sensitive information/information)

1. By asking you

When you register on The Healing Tree or the App, we receive and store information you choose to share with us only after taking your consent. This includes the details you fill out on forms, the phone number you use to register for our services. We understand that you may be hesitant to part with some sensitive information such as your medical prescriptions, but we would only ask for it if it was needed to provide our services.

2. Automatically

While using our website or App, certain information such as contact data, location, browsing statistics is automatically acquired. This information also includes traffic to and from your device to websites, IP address and device identifiers.

All this information constitutes “Personal Information” as declared by the standard SPI Rules. As per these rules, any information that relates to a natural person, which either directly or indirectly in combination with other information, available or likely to be available with a body corporate, is capable of identifying said person.

These rules also clearly outline information which classifies as “sensitive” and defines them to be one of the following:

  • Call data records
  • Passwords
  • Medical records and history
  • Sexual orientation
  • Biometric information
  • Physical, physiological and mental health condition
  • Financial information such as bank account numbers, credit/debit card numbers, net banking information, CVV details, etc.
  • Information received by body corporate under lawful contract or otherwise
  • Visitor details provided at time of registration or thereafter

Guidelines to ensure your privacy

The Healing Tree website and App subscribe to these carefully laid guidelines which put your privacy first.

1. When registering for The Healing Tree account on the website or the App, you would be prompted to agree to the terms in the Privacy Policy. Users who disagree, would be disqualified access to all our services. You would need to enter your name, email ID, phone number, gender, address, date of birth and a password which would be saved in our database upon successful registration. We may include more details in the future that would improve your experience and would assume your consent.

2. We would never collect any data that has been deemed as sensitive by the SPI Rules without your consent. We would never force you to disclose any such information, but the service requiring this information would remain unavailable to you.

3. All the information you provide is completely voluntary. Although we might use some of the information for the betterment of our services, we will never share any of the information with any third-party sources.

4. You are fully responsible for the information you have shared with us, and are solely responsible for any failure to fulfil a service caused due to any wrong or outdated information. In case you wish to update your personal data, please reach out to info@charutarhealth.org or contact us on 02692-228411.

5. Upon discontinuing your account, we would delete all your information by the time your account expires. After a sufficient period, your information may be anonymised and used by us for statistical reasons, but would never be shared with any third-party user.

6. The internet’s communication protocols mean we would be notified every time someone visits any of our web pages or uses the App. We also receive details of the user’s IP address, operating system and device. This information may be used for research purposes and find ways to serve you better but would never be shared with any third- party.

7. The Healing Tree services require the use of a credit/debit card, net banking or other online banking services. We may ask for your banking details such as your account number, card number, etc., and would share these details with a third-party gateway to complete a transaction. The verification procedure would be completed by the user only through the third-party platform’s gateway. Although we choose these third-party gateways with a lot of care, we would like to recommend our customers to exercise caution the moment they are redirected to the gateway.

8. Our website may use cookies (but never store personal or sensitive information) but never use them for any purposes except statistical ones. These prove to be a very helpful resource to analyse user patterns, choices and go a long way in improving our services.

9. This Privacy Policy only applies to The Healing Tree Website and The Healing Tree Mobile App. It does not apply to any link that redirects you away from them. Also, The Healing Tree does not assume responsibility to any third-party app’s terms or policies you may be redirected to. Upon clicking on a link, you agree to do so entirely at your own risk.

10. The Healing Tree does not assume responsibility over the accuracy or integrity of any information displayed using an external source on neither the website nor the App.

11. Any feedback or data provided to our care givers may be shared by them with our other care givers to offer you the best treatment possible. We might also store this information for academic purposes or for improvement of our services.

12. The Healing Tree’s App and website contain links to our social media platforms. These websites would gain access to your IP and may gain use a cookie to ensure you can visit the platform easily in the future. Your use of such platforms is governed by the platform’s Privacy Policy and not The Healing Tree’s.

13. If you use the Location feature on the website or App, we automatically collect your location information along with your device information. This information would be used only for statistical purposes and would never be shared with a third-party.

14. Despite implementing the best-in-class security features on the website and the App, data breaches may occur. This could mean data theft, unauthorised modification, improper use of information or accidental loss. In case of such an unfortunate event, The Healing Tree will not be held responsible for any losses incurred.

15. The Healing Tree shall only disclose personal information if it is forced to do so by law, rule, regulation, governmental authority, a law enforcement agency or any similar body. Even in such an event, The Healing Tree would divulge information at its sole discretion, only if it is necessary to protect its Terms and Conditions, it’s rights and laws or to prevent harm to anyone in society.

Security

When you visit The Healing Tree or use any of our services on the website or App, we use reasonable security measures to protect the information of our caregivers and patients. We use the very best equipment on the campus and the technologically advanced encryption techniques, at our IT centre to keep your privacy the way it is.

But despite this, as hard as we may try, we cannot guarantee the security of your information. All the information is transmitted electronically, it can be intercepted, decrypted and misused.

Change in Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Policy at any time and for any reason. We will alert you about any changes by updating the “Last updated” date of this Privacy Policy. You are encouraged to periodically review this Privacy Policy to stay informed of any changes we may make. You will be deemed to have been made aware of, will be subject to, and to have accepted the changes in any revised Privacy Policy by your continued use of the Application after the accepting this Privacy Policy.

How long do we keep your information?

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy (unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law such as tax, accounting or other legal requirements). No purpose in this policy will require us to keep your personal information for longer than the period of time than the duration for which you have an account with us.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete it or anonymise it, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

In short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this privacy policy unless otherwise required by law.

Privacy Note on COVID-19 for patients/App users

This notice describes how we may use your information to protect you and others during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The health and social care system is facing significant pressures due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Health and care information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support health and social care services and to protect public health. Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking and managing the outbreak. In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations.

Existing law which allows confidential patient information to be used and shared appropriately and lawfully in a public health emergency is being used during this outbreak. Confidential patient information may be shared to local authorities, other health organisations to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. Any information used or shared during the COVID-19 outbreak will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis to use the data. For further information go to https://www.mohfw.gov.in/.

During this period of emergency, opt-outs will not generally apply to the data used to support the COVID-19 outbreak, due to the public interest in sharing information. However, in relation to the Summary Care Record, existing choices will be respected. Where data is used and shared under these laws your right to have personal data erased will also not apply. It may also take us longer to respond to Subject Access Requests, Freedom of Information requests and new opt-out requests whilst we focus our efforts on responding to the outbreak.

In order to look after your health and care needs, we may share your confidential patient information including health and care records with clinical and non-clinical staff in other health and care providers, for example neighbouring practices, hospitals and government organizations. We may also use the details we have to send public health messages to you, either by phone, text or email.

During this period of emergency, we may offer you a consultation via telephone or video conferencing. By accepting the invitation and entering the consultation you are consenting to this. Your personal/confidential patient information will be safeguarded in the same way it would with any other consultation.

We will also be required to share personal/confidential patient information with health and care organisations and other bodies engaged in disease surveillance for the purposes of protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the outbreak. Further information is available about how health and care data is being used and shared by other NHS and social care organisations in a variety of ways to support the COVID-19 response.

All the data held in the platform is subject to strict controls that meet the requirements of data protection legislation.

In such circumstances where you tell us you’re experiencing COVID-19 symptoms we may need to collect specific health data about you. Where we need to do so, we will not collect more information than we require, and we will ensure that any information collected is treated with the appropriate safeguards.

We may amend this privacy notice at any time so please review it frequently. The date at the top of this page will be amended each time this notice is updated.

Contact:

In case of any query or question regarding this policy, please direct your questions towards the below mentioned address, mail us at info@charutarhealth.org or contact us on 02692-228411.

The Healing Tree
Shree Krishna Hospital
Gokal Nagar, Karamsad, Gujarat – 388 325

Last updated: October 17, 2020

Healthcare with Integrity