The Hamilton Practice takes great care to safeguard personal data provided by its patients and processes such data fairly and lawfully in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

The Hamilton Practice does not capture and store any personal information about individuals who access this web site, except where you voluntarily choose to give us your personal details via email or an on-line form.

In these latter cases, the personal information you give us is used exclusively by the Hamilton Practice for providing you with current and future information about our services.

We do not pass any of your personal information to outside organisations and/or individuals, except with your express consent.

You have a right to know about the personal information that the Hamilton Practice holds about you. You also have the right to have your data corrected or deleted. Please direct all your requests and/or queries about our data protection policy to the Hamilton Practice at the address found on the Home page.

This refers to the following Online Applications:

Repeat Prescription Ordering, Patient Questionnaire, Appointment Cancellation, Change of Personal Details & Blood Pressure Monitor.

The Internet is not a secure medium. While your questionnaire will be processed in strict confidence within our practice, we cannot guarantee its security over the Internet. However, we have taken a number of steps to help ensure the data you send to us is secure:

(1) We only use your Patient Number, part of your surname and your date of birth to identify you. **

(2) We use an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) link so that the data you enter is encrypted when sent over the communications link.

(3) As soon as we receive your data we delete it from our online server, so your data only remains on the Internet for a short period of time.

These measures ensure the applications are more secure than sending 'free text' emails. However, we do not guarantee or warrant these applications in any way. You are in no obligation to use the applications. If you do not wish to use these applications, please use one of our alternatives (eg paper copies of forms & questionnaires, telephone, fax, post or in person visits to the surgery).

** Please note that for 'Change of Personal Details' we do not request your Patient Number, alternatively we request the first three characters of your first name.

This form sends a non-secure free-text email to us and should therefore not be used for any confidential purpose. It has exactly the same security level as sending an unsecured email message from your email application (e.g. Outlook Express).

We have provided a box in reception for paper based Comments & Suggestions. This is provided as an alternative to using the online version.

The Hamilton Practice only monitors IP addresses of visitors to assess which pages are the most popular. These IP addresses are not linked to any personal data so that visitors to our site remain anonymous.

A cookie is a small piece of information sent from a web-site to your computer where it is stored on your hard drive. Most web-sites send cookies of some description.

When you complete an on-line repeat prescription request, this web-site stores a cookie containing your personal details (patient number, Date of Birth, part of your Surname and collection point). This is stored to save you having to complete the entire form every time you request a repeat prescription on-line. Most browsers will allow you to disable cookies; you will still be able to move around the site as normal if you do decide to disable cookies.