Privacy policy

We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are and how and why we collect, store, use and share your personal information. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint.

We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are subject to the Data Protection Act 2018, which applies across the United Kingdom and we are responsible as ‘controller’ of that personal information for the purposes of such Act.

This policy covers information we collect about you via our website: http://www.vivisol.co.uk/ (our “Website”), through our customer service centre, our agents or otherwise. Please read it carefully to understand how your personal information will be treated.

Key terms

“We, us, our” – Dolby Medical Home Respiratory Care Limited trading as Vivisol.

Data Subject(s), “you” – The individual(s) that relate to the information being held or processed.

Personally identifiable information (PII) (or Personal Identifiable Data – PID)

Special category personal information - Personal information revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership.

Genetic and biometric data - Data concerning health, sex life or sexual orientation

Personal information we collect about you

In order for Vivisol to provide its services, it is necessary to collect personal information and this is normally on behalf of the NHS or a private service provider, who remain the data controller. Data collection consent is managed by the data controller and Vivisol act as the data processor and is responsible for handling personal information responsibly and line with the contract terms. As part of Vivisol’s services we may collect and use the following personal information about you:

your name and contact information, including addresses (home, daytime and/or part time address), email address and telephone number and/or (if applicable) company details.
Information to enable us to check and verify your identity, e.g., your date of birth, NHS number and postcode
your gender information if you choose to give this to us.
your billing information, transaction and payment card information.
your contact history, purchase history and saved items.
information to enable us to undertake credit or other financial checks on you.
information about how you use our website, IT, communication and other systems.
your responses to surveys, competitions and promotions.
your GP practice and GP’s contact details.
your prescriber and prescriber centre details.
your prescription information and history.
your oxygen usage and meter readings from installed equipment.
your usage of consumables we provide to you.
your home visits by our technicians; and
your bank details for electricity rebate payments, including your bank, account name, sort code and account number.

This personal information is required to provide products and/or services to you. If you do not provide personal information we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing products and/or services to you.

How your personal information is collected

We collect most of this personal information directly from you—in person, by telephone, text or email and/or via our website and apps. However, we may also collect information:

from publicly accessible sources, e.g. Companies House or HM Land Registry;
directly from a third party, for example:

the NHS;
Vivitravel;
Oxygen Worldwide; and
credit reference agencies.

from a third party with your consent, e.g. your bank or building society;
from cookies on our website—for more information on our use of cookies, please see our cookies policy
For visitors to Vivisol; reception signing in books or similar electronic system) providing location / time for security purposes
via our IT systems, e.g., automated monitoring of our websites and other technical systems, such as our computer networks and connections, CCTV and access control systems, communications systems, including telephone calls within our telephone system, email and instant messaging systems

For Vivisol personnel, including contractors this may include completion of forms (physical, electronic including web-based portals as applicable), IT systems and where applicable, lone worker devices and vehicle trackers.

How and why we use your personal information

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal information if we have a proper reason for doing so, for example:

to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
where you have given consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

The table below explains what we use (process) your personal information for and our reasons for doing so:

What we use your personal information for	Our reasons
To provide products and/or services to you	For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
To prevent and detect fraud against you or your bank	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e. to minimise fraud that could be damaging for us and for you
Conducting checks to identify our customers and verify their identity. Other processing necessary to comply with professional, legal and regulatory obligations that apply to our business, e.g. under health and safety regulation	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Ensuring business policies are adhered to, e.g., policies covering security and internet use	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to make sure we are following our own internal procedures so we can deliver the best service to you
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price
Concordance report for NHS	Contractual commitment to produce a detailed concordance report on a monthly basis for the NHS
Integrated care systems (ICSs)	Contractual monthly invoicing on patient level of all services provided in the invoiced month per patient
Statistical analysis to help us manage our business, e.g., in relation to our financial performance, customer base, product range or other efficiency measures	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you. To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Updating and enhancing customer records	For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g., making sure that we can keep in touch with our customers about existing orders and new products
Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, e.g., to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you
Marketing our services and those of selected third parties to existing and former customers	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, i.e., to promote our business to existing and former customers
External audits and quality checks, e.g., for ISO or Investors in People accreditation and the audit of our accounts	For our legitimate interests or a those of a third party, i.e., to maintain our accreditations so we can demonstrate we operate at the highest standards. To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

The above table does not apply to special category personal information, which we will only process with your explicit consent.

Promotional communications

We may send you direct marketing in relation to our own products and services, as long as this is in line with any marketing preferences that you have provided to us and based on one or more of the reasons listed in section 5.3.

We will only send you direct marketing in relation to our own products and services by post, email or SMS:

where you have consented to this; or
where you have not objected to this, and we are marketing similar products and services to those which were the subject of a previous sale or negotiations of a sale to you.

Your agreement to the use of your personal information for direct marketing purposes is optional (i.e., consent based).

Our website will still be accessible to you, should you choose not to provide your consent.

You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:

contacting us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).
using the ‘unsubscribe’ link in promotional emails; or
updating your marketing preferences on our website www.vivisol.com

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further products and/or services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

Who we may share your personal information with

We routinely share personal information with:

companies within the Sol Medical group of companies.
third parties we use to help deliver our products and/or services to you, e.g., payment service providers, Sleep device manufacturers and delivery companies.
other third parties we use to help us run our business, e.g., marketing agencies or website hosts.
our key suppliers including insurers, brokers, pension providers etc.
our bank(s).
NHS Trusts, Scottish Health boards, Sleep, ventilation clinical service providers and integrated care systems (ICSs).
fire & rescue services; and
third parties for delivery of “holiday” oxygen services outside our regions.

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal information if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal information. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers to ensure they can only use your personal information to provide services to us and to you.

We may also share personal information with external auditors, e.g., in relation to ISO or MHRA, other accreditation bodies and the auditors of our financial accounts, and only when required to do so.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal information with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a re-structure. Usually, information will be anonymised, but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality agreements and/or contractual, legal obligations.

Where information is shared it is done so securely using appropriate technological measures in line with our ISO 27001 Information Security Management System processes. Where we develop or commission tools or software to process personal information we will apply security and privacy by design principles.

We will not share your personal information with any other third party without your explicit consent.

How long your personal information will be kept

We will keep your personal information while you have an account with us, or we are providing products and/or services to you. Thereafter, we will keep your personal information for only as long as it is necessary:

to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf.
to show that we treated you fairly; and
to keep records required by law.

We will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of personal information. Further, if your personal data relates to health data, we will follow the processes and procedures set out in the NHS’ Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care.

When it is no longer necessary to retain your personal information, we will delete or anonymise, for data subjects where it relates to the provision of goods or services this will be in accordance with the above NHS Code of Practice.

Transferring your personal information out of the EEA

Where there is an international dimension to the services we are providing to you, it may be necessary for us to share your personal information outside the UK, (usually within the European Economic Area – EEA), or on occasion outside the EEA. This may include sharing:

with your and our service providers located outside the UK or EEA; and
if you, or a third person receiving the services are travelling outside the UK or EEA.

These transfers are subject to special rules under UK data protection law.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the UK, such as those in the EEA.
Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific model contracts approved by the UK.
Alternatively, where there is an absence of an adequacy decision or the appropriate safeguards, we will only proceed with a transfer out of the EEA if:

having informed you of the possible risks of such transfer, you give your explicit consent to us proceeding with the transfer; or
the transfer is necessary to protect your vital interests, where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent; or
the transfer is necessary for the performance of a contract between you and us; or
the transfer is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract concluded in your interest.

If you would like further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below).

Your rights

You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

Access	The right to be provided with a copy of your personal information (the right of access)
Rectification	The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal information
To be forgotten	The right to require us to delete your personal information—in certain situations
Restriction of processing	The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal information—in certain circumstances, e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data
Data portability	The right to receive the personal information you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party—in certain situations
To object	The right to object: —at any time to your personal information being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); —in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information, e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests.
Not to be subject to automated individual decision-making	The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, please contact us (see ‘How to contact us’ below) or see the guidance from the Information Commissioner’s Office on individuals’ rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

email, call or write to us—see below: ‘How to contact us’; and
let us have enough information to identify you;
let us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill); and
let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

Feedback including complaints

We welcome any enquiry or feedback on how we manage personal information, and in the event that you are unsatisfied with our response you may raise a concern or complaint to us using the following contact options.

Email: dataprotection@vivisol.co.uk

Post: Data Protection Officer
Vivisol
Palladian, Manor Royal,
Old Brighton Road,
Crawley
RH10 9PY

In the unlikely even you are not satisfied with how we have handled your concern or complaint you have the right to complain (under GDPR / DPA) to the data protection supervisory authority;. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns or telephone: 0303 123 1113.

Changes to this privacy policy

This privacy policy was updated in October2023.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time—when we do we will inform you through our website or for employees through our internal employee communication.

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