Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

1. About Us
White Mill Veterinary Centre is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. For the purpose of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018, the "Data Controller" is Sandwich Veterinary Centre, White Mill Veterinary Centre, Ash Road, Sandwich CT13 9JB, admin@whitemillvets.co.uk .

2. Information We Collect About You
We collect and process personal data to provide veterinary care, fulfil our contract with you, and meet our legal obligations. This may include:

·         Identity and Contact Data: Name, address, telephone numbers, and email addresses.

·         Pet Details: Your animal's name, species, breed, date of birth, and microchip number.

·         Health and Clinical History: Full clinical records, treatment histories, test results, and post-mortem results.

·         Financial Data: Payment history and card/bank details.

·         Insurance Claims: Information provided to process insurance claims on your behalf.

·         "Cookies": this enables the website to remember your information if you return to the site, such as to keep you logged in or to remember your login credentials if you return to the site.

·         Any other information that you send to the company.

3. How We Use Your Information
We use your personal data to:

·         Register your animal(s) and maintain accurate clinical records.

·         Provide necessary veterinary medical treatment and preventative healthcare.

·         Send you appointment reminders, vaccination alerts, and treatment follow-ups.

·         Fulfil our legal obligations, such as reporting certain diseases or verifying microchip registrations.

·         Process payments and manage your account.

4. Sharing Your Information
We will not share your personal data with third parties without your consent, except in the following necessary circumstances:

·         Other Veterinary Professionals: When referring your animal to a specialist or another practice for continuity of care.

·         Laboratories and Crematoria: For diagnostic testing or end-of-life services.

·         Insurance Companies: To process your claims.

·         Payment Processors: to complete transactions securely.

·         Regulatory Bodies: Where we are legally required to provide information to the RCVS, government authorities, or law enforcement.

5. Animal Welfare and Public Interest
In exceptional circumstances, such as immediate animal welfare concerns or a wider public interest, it may be necessary to disclose your information without your consent. We do not take this lightly and will only do so in accordance with the RCVS Client Confidentiality Guidelines .

6. Data Security and Retention
We have implemented appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used, or accessed in an unauthorized way. We will only retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the satisfaction of any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. Under RCVS guidelines, clinical records should typically be kept for a minimum of 7 years.

7. Cookies and Website Tracking
Our website uses cookies for essential functionality and analytics:

·         Essential cookies: required for site operation and user experience

·         Analytics cookies: used to monitor website usage.  All data is anonymized.

8. Social Media Policy & Usage

We adopt a Social Media Policy to ensure our business and our staff conduct themselves appropriately online.  Although we have official profiles on social media platforms, we advise users to verify the authenticity of such profiles before engaging with, or sharing information with such profiles.  We will never ask for user passwords or personal details on social media platforms.  Users are advised to conduct themselves appropriately when engaging with us on social media.

9. Other websites
Our website contains links to other websites of interest. You should note, however, that once you have used these links to leave our site, we do not have control over that other website.  Therefore we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement.

10. Your Data Rights
Under UK data protection law, you have the right to request access, correction, or erasure of your personal data. To exercise these rights or make a Subject Access Request, please contact us using the details in Section 1.

Policy updated 20/7/26