This policy explains how The Veterinary Wellness Centre collects, uses, shares and protects your personal information, and how we use cookies on this website. Please read it alongside any information we give you when you register with us or use our services.
1. Who we are
The Veterinary Wellness Centre is a trading name of Botanical Veterinary Care Ltd, a company registered in Scotland (company number SC723753, VAT GB448558745), whose practice and registered address is 73–77 Whitehill Street, Newcraighall, Musselburgh EH21 8QZ.
We are the data controller for the personal information we hold about you. Our data protection contact is John Main. If you have any questions about this policy or your information, or wish to exercise your rights, please contact us at [email protected] or 0131 516 2499.
We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), registration number ZB584208.
2. The information we collect
Information you give us — for example when you register, book an appointment, contact us, or send us files:
- Your name, address, telephone number(s) and email address;
- Your pet's details — name, species, breed, age, sex, microchip number and clinical history;
- Appointment, treatment and clinical records relating to your pet;
- Payment details — where you pay by card, or store a card on file (for example for your Pet Wellness Plan or to settle treatment costs), your card is held and processed securely by our payment processor, Nordhealth Pay. We do not store your full card details ourselves;
- Any correspondence, enquiries, videos, photos or documents you send us.
Information from others — such as your previous veterinary practice, referring vets, laboratories, microchip databases and (with your authority) your pet insurer.
Information collected automatically — when you visit this website we collect limited technical information needed to deliver and secure the site (see Cookies).
3. How we use your information, and our lawful bases
We use your information to:
- Provide veterinary care to your pet and manage your account — performance of our contract with you and our legitimate interests in running the practice;
- Contact you about appointments, reminders, results and your pet's ongoing care — contract / legitimate interests;
- Arrange referrals and share clinical information with other professionals involved in your pet's care — legitimate interests, and your consent where appropriate;
- Take payment and keep proper financial records — contract / legal obligation;
- Meet our legal and professional obligations (for example RCVS standards, controlled-drugs records and tax law) — legal obligation;
- Respond to your enquiries and to files you send us — legitimate interests / consent;
- Send you marketing or news only where you have asked us to — consent. You can opt out at any time.
4. Sending us files online
Our website lets you send us videos, photos and records securely (for example via twc.vet/send or our referral form). When you do:
- Your files, and any details you add (such as your name and your pet's name), are stored securely and used only to help us care for your pet;
- Uploaded files are automatically deleted after 30 days. Anything clinically relevant is saved into your pet's record and kept in line with section 8;
- The upload forms use Cloudflare Turnstile to prevent automated abuse — this does not track you.
5. Sharing your information
We do not sell your personal information. We share it only where necessary:
- With other vets, referral practices, specialists and laboratories involved in your pet's care;
- With our out-of-hours partner, ICR Loanhead, so your pet can be cared for when we are closed;
- With your pet's insurer, where you have authorised an insurance claim;
- With microchip databases and, where legally required, with regulators or authorities;
- With trusted service providers who process information on our behalf, under contract and only on our instructions (see section 6).
6. Our service providers
We use carefully chosen providers to run the practice and this website, including:
- Cloudflare, Inc. — website hosting, content delivery, security, and secure file storage;
- Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft 365) — our email;
- Resend — automated email notifications from the website;
- Nordhealth Pay — our payment processor, which securely stores and processes card payments (including any card you keep on file for your Pet Wellness Plan or treatment costs);
- Our practice management system and the external laboratories we use for diagnostic testing.
Some providers may process data outside the UK. Where they do, we rely on appropriate safeguards (such as UK adequacy regulations or the UK International Data Transfer Agreement) to protect your information.
7. Cookies & similar technologies
This website uses only strictly necessary cookies — the small files needed to keep the site secure and working. These are set by our hosting and security provider, Cloudflare (including the Turnstile anti-abuse check on our upload forms).
We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not track you across other websites.
Because these cookies are essential to the service, no consent is required for them. You can still block or delete cookies in your browser settings, but please note that parts of the site (such as the upload and referral forms) may then not work properly.
When you first visit, a small notice bar confirms the above. Dismissing it simply stores a flag in your browser's local storage so we don't show it again — this is not a cookie and holds no personal information.
8. How long we keep your information
- Clinical and patient records — kept in line with RCVS guidance and our legal obligations (generally for several years; some records, such as those for controlled drugs, have specific retention periods);
- Online uploads — deleted after 30 days (anything clinically relevant is moved into the patient record);
- Financial records — kept for as long as the law requires (generally six years);
- Enquiries and correspondence — kept only for as long as we reasonably need them.
9. Keeping your information secure
We take the security of your information seriously. Data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS), access is restricted to those who need it, and we use reputable providers. Our staff file portal is protected and accessible only to authorised members of our team.
10. Your rights
Under data protection law you have the right to: access the information we hold about you; have it corrected or, in some cases, erased; restrict or object to how we use it; ask for it to be transferred; and withdraw any consent you have given. To exercise any of these, contact us using the details below. We will respond within one month.
If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113 — though we would always prefer the chance to put things right first.
11. Children
Our services and this website are aimed at pet owners aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect information from children.
12. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The latest version will always be on this page, with the date it was last updated shown at the top.
13. Contact us
The Veterinary Wellness Centre · 73–77 Whitehill Street, Newcraighall, Musselburgh EH21 8QZ
[email protected] · 0131 516 2499