Keeping your data safe and putting you in control of how we use your personal data is of paramount importance to the team here at Phlo. We know healthcare is a private & personal matter for many of you, and as your nominated pharmacy you can rely on our confidentiality and robust security processes to ensure everything is kept nice and safe.

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Safeguarding your data

Patient data is held securely within our pharmacy clinical systems. These systems follow security best practices in ensuring data is encrypted when stored, and when transmitted between our internal systems. These systems meet the high expectations required for integration with the NHS and undergo regular security testing to ensure best practices are being adhered to.

Patient data is only available to those who need it to support you with clinical queries and ensure your medication gets safely to your door. This is typically our pharmacists, dispensers and our patient care team. Occasionally our technical support team may require access when helping to resolve an issue, but this is only on a case-by-case basis.

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Adhering to the regulators

As a pharmacy storing personal data, multiple bodies have regulatory oversight on how we store and process patient data. The GPhC, the PSNC and the NHS set out expectations on how pharmacies should handle patient data, and the ICO ensures data protection standards within the UK GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) are being met.

Some of the key principles for how we handle data in line with UK GDPR.

• Data is used in line with a patient's expectations. Data is always processed lawfully, fairly and transparently
• Only the data required to provide our services effectively is collected
• We aim to keep patient data as accurate as possible
• We only keep data for an appropriate timeframe to provide our services
• Data is always processed with the highest security standards in place

Within the GDPR framework the rights of an individual are also well defined. Among others, these allow for patients to request a copy of their data, ask for corrections to their data being held, and ask for their data to be removed.

We publish all the details of how we process patient data within our Privacy Policy and are always happy to answer any questions. We always assess carefully where our patient data goes, how it's being stored, and how it's being processed.

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Putting you in control

When you switch to Phlo as your pharmacy of choice, we collect key personal data in order to provide our pharmacy services. Amongst this is your contact information, such as mobile telephone number and email address. We’ll only ever use this information to deliver our pharmacy services to you and you can always opt out of any non-essential communications from us.

We’ve designed a digital keeping-in-touch strategy which includes both essential and additional communications that enhance your experience as a Phlo patient. We’re always listening to your feedback, and we’ve recently reduced the level of emails during the prescription request and ordering stages.

Our product and patient experience teams have worked together to deliver a first-stage push notification strategy, which enables you to receive essential ordering information and updates direct to your mobile device. Within the My Account area of the Phlo app, patients can choose their preferred communication options and manage other key information. We’ve got more flexibility coming soon, so look out for our updates!

If you want to know more about how we keep your data safe and how we’re putting you in control, get in touch with our friendly team. We’d love to hear from you.