The HPA Health Group takes the necessary steps to ensure the protection of our Patient’s data, as it processes personal data, to guarantee high quality standards when providing healthcare (in areas such as medical diagnosis, preventive medicine and the management of health services), or to comply with legal obligations, when providing the said services in our Units, identified here, and in compliance with European Parliament and Council Regulations (EU) 2016/ 679 of 27th April 2016 (“General Regulation on Data Protection” or “GRDP”). We have put together in this Personal Data Protection Policy (“Policy”), the main points regarding the processing of your personal data, thus ensuring that the information we provide is concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible.
Information, of any nature and regardless of its support, including sound and image, relating to an identified or identifiable person (“holder of the data”). A person who can be identified directly or indirectly is considered identifiable, namely by reference to an identification number or of more specific elements such as physical, physiological, psychological, economic, cultural or social identity.
Personal data may be of a more sensitive nature in certain situations, which the GRDP classifies as “special categories of data”. These may relate to the holder's racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, genetic information, biometric identifiers, sex life, sexual orientation or health.
“Health-related data” is personal data relating to a person’s physical or mental health, including the provision of health services, which reveals information about their past, present or future health status.
As a rule, when a Patient goes to one of our Units (either a Hospital or Clinic – together “Unit” or “Units”), these Units that provide medical services are considered entities Responsible for the Treatment, under the terms of the GRDP.
We highlight that:
When seeking medical care from one of our other Units, it will not be necessary to provide your personal data once again. Through our Integrated Information System, the Unit's health professional can consult the information collected in one of our other Units. Such a system is, of course, equipped with the necessary security measures and safeguards in terms of data protection and in accordance with the legislation in force.
We can access your data directly from various sources, from your medical file, from the Identification Form which you have completed, when booking an appointment or exam, when you going for an appointment/undergoing an exam, when you contact us or when you use the MyHPA Mobile Application. We can access your personal data indirectly through our service providers who provide medical services on our behalf or on behalf of our associates. You can find more information on the data we share with other entities in the “DATA COMMUNICATIONS” section below.
The treatment of your personal data may include personal data directly or indirectly related to your health. Providing personal data marked with an * is mandatory.
Types of Personal Data
Full name*, date of birth*, gender*, telephone/mobile number* and TAX No.*; other identification data, for example: Passport/I.D. number, family Doctor and Health Centre, marital status, spouse's name, father's name, mother's name (if the Client is a minor), insurance policy data
Means of Collection
When a patient’s file is opened, either in person at the reception counter of one of our Health Units or my means of telephone or computer.
Types of Personal Data
Patients File Number* (encrypted information that allows the system to recognize the user's password)
Means of data collection
When Patients’ details are collected
Type of Personal Data
Information on appointments, consultations or exams and the respective Health Unit, (including the data necessary for the provision of medical and telemedicine services)
Means of data collection
When confirming an appointment/requesting information through the various channels (E-mail, telephone, myHPA Web User Portal, HPA Health Group website and MyHPA Mobile Application)
Type of Personal Data
Information regarding your health, including: reason for consultation/procedure, personal history, family history, clinical examination, diagnoses, complementary exams, referral, alerts; medication prescribed; procedures carried out and episode description, date of beginning and end of the episode, status of the episode, type of episode, indication if there are episode results and identifying these results;
Genetic data and data relating to sexual life and sexual orientation
Means of data collection
During the course of providing integrated health care, including for the management of the Unit's systems and services
Type of Personal Data
Personal data is not collected
Means of data collection
Personal data is not collected
Type of Personal Data
Name, date of birth, gender and Email address
Means of data collection
When the Patient has consented to the processing of data for this purpose / has subscribed to the newsletter
Type of Personal Data
Information for creating your Personal File on our websites and mobile applications (such as: full name, Email address, password, mobile number, date of birth, TAX No. and gender) as well as additional information necessary to manage and to effectively respond to requests made on these platforms.
Information on how to use the platforms, such as: [the IP of the device for access, date and time of beginning and end of the visit to the websites, user's browser history / information collected through cookies]
Means of data collection
When you use our websites and mobile applications, according to Privacy Policies and Cookie Policies respectively
Type of Personal Data
Image
Patients’ personal data are processed in order to provide health care, as well as for the management of systems and services of our various Units. If the Patient decides to make their personal data available for other purposes, as well as if the Units are bound to comply with legal obligations requiring the processing of personal data, the said data may need to be processed for the relevant purposes. We can therefore use your personal data for the following purposes:
We use your information mentioned above for the purposes of preventive medicine, telemedicine, scheduling appointments, scheduling exams, medical diagnosis, to provide health care, for electronic prescription of medicines and complementary exams and for the management of the systems and services of our various Units.
We may contact patients by letter, Email, telephone or SMS, for administrative or operational reasons (e.g. sending confirmation of appointments / payments, to inform of any changes or unforeseen circumstances regarding appointments. This information is not made for marketing purposes, they will continue to be sent even if patients have decided not to receive marketing information. We will also use your personal data to respond to requests, suggestions, contacts or complaints.
To receive marketing information, if you have consented to receive them, by having subscribed to the newsletter. If you no longer wish to receive marketing information from us, to withdraw your consent simply click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any marketing information you receive from us.
We may also process your personal data for the purposes of administrative and financial purposes, the protection of people and property and the security of premises (video surveillance), for audit purposes, detection and analysis of fraud, for declarations, exercise and defence of legal rights in court proceedings, as well as for the development and maintenance of systems.
In particular, the obligation to provide your personal data to the Central Administration of the Department of Health and to other public Health entities, as well as to Law Courts, Solicitors and criminal police, in the exercise of their duties and assignments (to learn more about the various types of recipients of your personal data, see the “DATA COMMUNICATIONS”, section below).
We always process your personal data in strict compliance with the law. According to the GRDP, the controller for personal data processing must always have adequate legal grounds for doing so. Therefore, in line with applicable legislation, the processing of your personal data may be based on the following grounds:
Providing health care and management of the relationship between Patients and the various Units
To fulfil the obligation of providing the Patient with health care services, or providing pre-contractual procedures at the request of the Patient (for example, when scheduling an appointment or clinical procedure); when the treatment concerns special categories of data, such as health data, the treatment will be based on strict requirement, for the purposes of preventive medicine, medical diagnosis and to provide health care or treatment.
These are always carried out based on the patient’s consent. Consent may be withdrawn at any time. However, we draw attention to the fact that the withdrawal of consent does not prejudice the legal processing of data on the basis of consent previously given. For more information on Patient’s rights under the GRDB, see the “YOUR RIGHTS”, section below.
These are always carried out based on patients’ consent. However, we draw attention to the fact that the withdrawal of consent does not prejudice the legal processing of data on the basis of consent previously given. For more information on your rights under the GRDP, see the “YOUR RIGHTS”, section below..
Only doctors and health professionals assigned to providing health care and bound by a professional secrecy obligation can access your personal data. In cases where this is not the case, when your health data and other special data categories are accessed by employees who are not bound by obligations of professional secrecy, we ensure that such employees assume adequate confidentiality obligations and will only process your data under the responsibility and supervision of a professional subject to the obligation of professional secrecy.
In cases where administrative staff have access to health data and other special categories of data, collected for specific purposes, namely, the processing of data for the purpose of billing health services provided, for the purpose of scheduling consultations and clinical procedures or to manage your requests for information or complaints, in compliance with the principle of data minimization and the inherent purposes.
The period of retention of your personal data will vary according to the purpose for which they are processed. As a rule, we only process personal data for the period strictly necessary to carry out the underlying reason for its processing. However, in certain cases, there may be legal obligations to which we are bound and which oblige us to keep your data for a longer period of time.
According to current legislation on data protection, you may, at any time, request access to your personal data, as well as its rectification, elimination, processing elimination, the transfer of your data, or you may object to its processing. You can exercise these rights through the contacts indicated below on “CONTACT US” or personally at the reception counter of the Unit in question.
Your rights under data protection legislation consist of:
The right to information transparency, and rules to exercise your rights: the right to know who is responsible for processing your personal data, your rights and how to exercise them, with this information provided in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible manner, using clear and simple language.
The Right to Access and to Information: the right to confirm whether or not your personal data is being processed, as well as the right to access your personal data and certain information, including a copy of your personal data which is being processed. This right is without prejudice to the rights and freedoms of third parties, namely the business confidentiality and intellectual property rights of the controller;
The Right of Rectification: the right to obtain the rectification of inaccurate personal data, as well as the right to complete your data, if it is incomplete;
The Right to Erase: the right to request the erasure of your data in certain cases, namely, if your personal data is no longer necessary for the purpose for which it was collected or processed. This right does not affect compliance with legal obligations of personal data retention that might affect the person responsible for personal data processing;
The Right of Data Processing Limitations: the right to request the limitation of personal data processing in certain cases, namely, if the treatment is unlawful and if you oppose the erasure of the data, requesting, in return, the limitation of its use;
The Right to Transfer Data: The right to receive the personal data which you have provided the controller, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, including the right to transfer such data to another controller;
The Right of Opposition, which means that, in certain cases (for example, when your personal data is processed for the purposes of direct marketing), you can object at any time, for reasons related to your particular situation, to the processing of your data.
Under the terms of the law, you are also guaranteed the right, through the aforementioned means, to withdraw your consent to the processing of data for which consent constitutes the basis of legitimacy, which does not, however, invalidate the processing of data carried out until such date based on consent previously given.
The above applies, with the necessary adaptations, to the exercise of rights by the holder of parental responsibilities or guardian, of personal data on behalf of minors or incapable persons.
If you consider that the way we treat your data does not comply with the data protection legislation in force, we inform you that, without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial appeal, you have the possibility to file a complaint with the National Protection Data Commission or any other supervisory authority in this area.
Units may transmit Patients’ data to each other, when this is necessary to provide the Patient with high quality health care. We may also use subcontracted entities to provide certain services, based on subcontracting agreements and in accordance with the requirements of applicable legislation. We may also transmit our Patients’ personal data to third parties when such data communications are necessary or appropriate (i) in light of applicable law, (ii) in compliance with legal obligations/court orders and (iii) to respond to requests from public or governmental authorities.
We may therefore transmit your personal data to Entidade Reguladora da Saúde, to ACSS, Serviços Partilhados do Ministério da Saúde (SPMS), to INFARMED or to Administrações Regionais da Saúde, Courts of Law, solicitors, criminal police or the Public Prosecutor's Office when notified for the purpose or when this is necessary to fulfil legal obligations, as legally stipulated.
In order for the services provided by the Unit to be covered by the patient’s insurance or health subsystem, personal data, including health data related to such services, may also be communicated to the Insurance Company or the health subsystem of which the patient is a beneficiary, due to the fact that they are bound by secrecy and are autonomously responsible for the processing of their client’s data.
In any of the aforementioned situations, we undertake to take all reasonable measures to ensure the effective protection of the personal data processed by us.
If the provision of services by the HPA Health Group implies the transfer of personal data to third countries (outside of the European Union or the European Economic Area), including to foreign Insurance Companies or Insurance Brokers, the HPA Health Group will implement the necessary and appropriate measures in the light of the law to ensure the protection of personal data subject to such a transfer, strictly complying with legal procedures regarding the requirements that apply to such transfers.
Taking into account current situations, the associated implementation costs and the nature, scope, context and purpose of data processing, as well as the risks of varying probability and degree to the rights and freedoms of data holders, we have adopted the appropriate technical measures to ensure a level of security adapted to such risks, such as:
The HPA Health Group has appointed a Data Protection Officer. In the event of queries or suggestions regarding the Policy or personal data processing practices, please contact us by Email: dpo@grupohpa.com or to the following address: Sítio Cruz da Bota, Lote 27, Estrada de Alvor, 8500-322, in Portimão.
We reserve the right to implement changes or update this Policy at any time. Any changes implemented by us will be duly updated on our website. If these imply a substantial change in the way patients data is to be processed, we will notify patients of such changes, through the contact details that have been made available.
Last update: 31st May 2022