Last updated: 7 October 2026

Sidcup Foot Clinic is committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information safely and lawfully. This privacy policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, how long we keep it and what rights you have, in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

1. Who we are

Sidcup Foot Clinic is a trading name of Excellent Care 1st, which provides podiatry and chiropody services and is the “data controller” for the personal information described in this policy. This means we decide how and why your information is used. In this policy, “we”, “us” and “our” mean Sidcup Foot Clinic and Excellent Care 1st. You can contact us at:

Phone: 020 8302 5259
Online: use our contact form
Post: Sidcup Foot Clinic, Dental Haven Building, 1 Elm Parade, Main Road, Sidcup, DA14 6ND

2. The information we collect

Identity and contact details: your name, date of birth, address, telephone number and email address.
Health information: your medical history, medication, allergies, health conditions (such as diabetes or circulation problems), foot and lower limb examination findings, diagnoses, treatment notes and care plans. This is “special category” data and receives extra protection.
Photographs and images: clinical photographs of your feet or nails, only where you have agreed.
Booking and payment details: appointment dates and times, services booked, fees and payment records. We do not store full card details on our website.
Communications: emails, messages, telephone calls and contact form enquiries you send to us.
Information about others: where relevant, details of a parent, guardian, carer or emergency contact.
Website information: technical data such as your IP address, browser type and the pages you visit, collected through cookies and similar technologies.

3. How we collect your information

We collect information directly from you, for example when you book an appointment online or by phone, complete a registration or consultation form, attend an appointment, contact us through our website or email us. We may also receive information from your GP, another healthcare professional or a carer, where you have agreed to this or where the law allows.

4. How and why we use your information

We only use your information when we have a lawful reason to do so. The main reasons are:

To provide you with care and treatment and to keep accurate clinical records. Our lawful bases are that this is necessary to provide the services you have asked for (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b)), and for the provision of health care and treatment (Article 9(2)(h)).
To manage your appointments and payments, including sending reminders and confirmations.
To comply with legal and professional obligations, including professional standards and requirements for record keeping, tax and accounting (Article 6(1)(c)).
For our legitimate interests, such as running and improving our clinic, keeping our systems and website secure, handling complaints and defending legal claims (Article 6(1)(f)), always balanced against your rights.
With your consent, for example to take clinical photographs, to share information with your GP or other professionals, or to contact you about our services where consent is needed. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

We do not use your information for automated decision-making or profiling, and we do not sell your personal information.

5. Who we share your information with

We keep your health information confidential. We only share it where necessary and where the law allows, with:

Your GP or other healthcare professionals involved in your care, with your agreement, or where there is a serious risk to you or someone else.
Our service providers, who process information on our behalf under written contracts. These include the provider of our online booking and clinical records system (Cliniko), our website hosting and IT providers, and payment providers.
Professional advisers, insurers and regulators, where needed to handle a complaint or claim or to meet our regulatory duties.
Police, courts or other authorities, if we are legally required to disclose information.
Other clinics in the Excellent Care 1st group, only where this is needed for your care and you have been told.

6. Transfers outside the UK

Some of our service providers, including our online booking and records system, may store or process information on servers outside the UK. Where this happens, we make sure appropriate safeguards are in place, such as a UK adequacy decision, the UK International Data Transfer Agreement, or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses, so that your information remains protected.

7. How long we keep your information

We keep information only for as long as we need it, in line with professional guidance:

Adult patient records: for 8 years after your last treatment.
Children’s records: until the patient’s 25th birthday (or 26th if they were 17 when treatment ended), or for 8 years after their last treatment, whichever is longer.
Financial and accounting records: for 6 years, as required by law.
Enquiries that do not lead to treatment: for no longer than 12 months.
Complaints records: for 10 years after the complaint is closed.

When information is no longer needed, we securely delete or destroy it.

8. How we keep your information secure

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect your information, including secure, access-controlled systems, confidentiality obligations for our staff, and secure storage and disposal of paper records. No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, so please avoid sending sensitive health details by ordinary email where you can.

9. Your rights

Under data protection law you have the right to:

Be told how your information is used (this policy).
Ask for a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
Ask us to correct information that is inaccurate or incomplete.
Ask us to erase your information in certain circumstances. This is limited for clinical records, which we are legally and professionally required to keep.
Ask us to restrict how we use your information in certain circumstances.
Ask for your information in a portable format, where this applies.
Object to us using your information based on our legitimate interests.
Withdraw your consent at any time, where we rely on consent.

To use any of these rights, please contact us using the details above. We will usually respond within one month and will not normally charge a fee. We may need to confirm your identity first.

10. Our website, cookies and links

Our website uses cookies and similar technologies that are needed to make it work and to keep it secure and, where we use them, to help us understand how it is used. Details you submit through our website contact form are sent to us and stored securely so that we can respond to you. You can control cookies through your browser settings. Our website may contain links to other websites, such as our social media pages and booking system. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those websites, so please read their privacy policies.

11. Children

We provide care for children, and we ask a parent or guardian with parental responsibility to give consent and information on their behalf where the child is under 16. Our website is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from children through it.

12. Concerns and complaints

If you have any concerns about how we handle your information, please tell us first so that we can put things right. You can also read our Complaints Policy. You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK data protection regulator, at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by telephone on 0303 123 1113.

13. Changes to this privacy policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be available on our website, with the date it was last updated shown at the top.