Privacy Policy

Version 2.1 · November 2026

Who we are

Professor Michael R Whitehouse provides private medical and surgical services, and medicolegal expert witness services, through M R Whitehouse Limited (registered in England and Wales, company number 12588112). Professor Whitehouse is the company's only clinician.

M R Whitehouse Limited is the data controller for the personal information described in this policy. It is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) under registration number ZB295358.

Registered office: C/O MGB Accountants, Suite 22 Trym Lodge, 1 Henbury Road, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol BS9 3HQ.

Contact for any question about this policy or your information: our Practice Manager, Lauren, at lauren@theorchardgroup.org.uk or 0117 427 6542.

This policy covers the records we hold. Hospitals where Professor Whitehouse works, such as Spire Healthcare, Nuffield Health and NHS Trusts, keep their own records about you. Those records are covered by the hospital's own privacy notice. When you are treated as an NHS patient, the NHS organisation responsible for your care is the controller of your NHS records.

How we collect personal information

We collect information from you directly. This may be when you contact us by telephone, email, post or through our website, when you fill in forms, or face to face during consultations and while we diagnose and plan your treatment.

We also collect information about you from other people and organisations, including:

a family member or someone else acting on your behalf;
your parent or legal guardian, if you are under 18;
doctors, other clinicians and healthcare professionals, hospitals, clinics and other healthcare providers;
health insurers;
people instructing us in medicolegal matters, usually a solicitor, but sometimes people representing hospitals, NHS Trusts or NHS Resolution;
service providers who work with us on the care you receive from us.

The information we hold

Standard personal information, for example:

contact details (name, address, email address, telephone number);
date of birth, country of residence and identification numbers such as your hospital or NHS number (so that we can, for example, report correctly to national registries such as the National Joint Registry);
information about your employment and the type of work you do, where relevant to your condition;
details of previous contact with you;
details of your health insurer or other funder;
payment details (for example, payments made to us).

Special category information, for example:

information about your physical or mental health. This comes from consultations, forms you complete, referrals, reports, previous treatment records and correspondence about your care.
information about your ethnic origin or religion, where you tell us and it is relevant to your care.

Information about criminal convictions or offences, which we process only in medicolegal work, and only where it is relevant to the case we have been instructed on.

Our use of artificial intelligence (AI)

Professor Whitehouse uses artificial intelligence (AI) software to help write letters and records. This software runs offline, only on his own encrypted computers. None of your information is sent to an AI company, a cloud service or any other third party, and it is never used to train or improve any AI software.

The AI software only helps prepare drafts. It does not make or suggest decisions about your care. Professor Whitehouse checks, corrects and approves everything it drafts before it is used or sent. We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing.

He uses it in two ways.

1. Recording of consultations (ambient dictation)

With your consent, Professor Whitehouse may record the conversation during your consultation to help write your clinic letter. He may also record his own dictation of an operation note.

A speech recognition program (Whisper) turns the recording into text. A language model (Qwen) then drafts the letter from that text, using Professor Whitehouse's own letter templates. Both run offline on his computer.
Before he starts recording, Professor Whitehouse will ask you, and anyone with you, whether you are happy for him to do so. If you are not able to decide for yourself, he will only record with the agreement of someone who has legal authority to decide for you. Otherwise he will not record.
If something needs checking, Professor Whitehouse may listen back to part of the recording. Nobody else listens to it.
The recording and its text are deleted once your letter is approved, and within 7 days at the latest. Only the approved letter is kept in your record. Because recordings are deleted, we will not normally be able to provide a copy of one.
You can opt out at any time, and this will not affect your care. Tell Professor Whitehouse at your appointment, contact the Practice Manager (lauren@theorchardgroup.org.uk or 0117 427 6542), or use the opt-out form in our patient information leaflet. Your choice is recorded so that you are not recorded at later appointments, until you tell us otherwise.
We keep a record of opt-outs and an anonymous audit of how the system is working, such as how often drafts needed correcting. The audit contains no names or other identifying details.

2. Reading referrals and earlier letters

The same offline AI software helps Professor Whitehouse pick out the relevant details from referral letters and earlier clinic letters. He uses these details to prepare your clinic letter and the summary for the anaesthetist before an operation. He checks every detail before it is used.

What we use your information for and our lawful basis

We use your information to provide your medical and surgical care, to communicate with you and others involved in your care, to manage payment and insurance, to meet our legal and professional obligations, and to provide medicolegal reports when instructed.

Under UK data protection law we rely on:

contract, where we are providing services to you (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(b));
legal obligation, for example keeping records and reporting to national registries and regulators (Article 6(1)(c));
legitimate interests, for example keeping accurate and efficient records, running our practice and quality assurance, where these are not outweighed by your interests (Article 6(1)(f)).

For health and other special category information we rely on:

the provision of health care by a health professional subject to a duty of confidentiality (Article 9(2)(h) and Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, Part 1, paragraph 2);
legal claims, for medicolegal work (Article 9(2)(f)); information about criminal convictions is processed under Data Protection Act 2018, Schedule 1, Part 3, paragraph 33;
your explicit consent, only where no other basis applies. We will tell you clearly when we are asking for consent, and you can withdraw it at any time.

Asking whether you are happy to be recorded is part of our duty of confidentiality and professional guidance. It is not the legal basis for using your information under data protection law.

Where we store your information

Your information is stored and processed in the UK. Clinical working files are kept on encrypted devices belonging to M R Whitehouse Limited, in folders that are not synchronised to any cloud storage service. The two computers that hold them are kept in step over an encrypted private connection between them.

For urgent questions, for example from a ward, Professor Whitehouse can also view letters and operation details on his own phone through an encrypted private connection to his computer. The phone can only display information. Nothing is stored on it, nothing can be changed from it, and every view is logged.

Letters and documents are sent by secure or encrypted email. Our IT and service providers must keep appropriate technical and organisational measures in place to protect your information.

If you want to send us sensitive information by email, ask us for details of a free, secure email service you can use.

Who we share your information with

We share information only when needed, and only what is needed for the purpose:

doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals involved in your care, and your GP;
the hospital where you are seen or treated (for example Spire Healthcare, Nuffield Health or an NHS Trust);
our Practice Manager and medical secretaries, who provide administrative support to us;
anyone you ask us to communicate with about your care;
your health insurer or other funder;
NHS organisations, including NHS Trusts, Integrated Care Boards, NHS England, NHS Wales, NHS Resolution and the Department of Health and Social Care;
national registries such as the National Joint Registry, and the Private Healthcare Information Network;
healthcare and other regulators, such as the General Medical Council and the Care Quality Commission;
those instructing us to provide a medicolegal report;
our professional advisers and service providers, such as IT suppliers, accountants, auditors and lawyers, and HMRC as required;
the police and other third parties where reasonably necessary to prevent or detect crime, or where a court orders us to.

How long we keep your information

We keep your information only as long as necessary.

Clinical records (consultations, treatment and assessments) are kept for 20 years after your last contact with us. This is in line with healthcare practice and based on patient safety.
Operation notes recording the type and size of implants may be kept longer. If you ever need further surgery, this information helps us plan it and order the right implants.
Consultation recordings and the text made from them are deleted once your letter is approved, and within 7 days at the latest.
Medicolegal work: the medical records we are given to prepare a report are destroyed 3 months after the case ends. The report itself, and other information we need, are kept for up to 10 years after the case ends.

How we communicate with you

We usually contact you by telephone, text message, email or post. If we cannot reach you, we may leave a voicemail. We will not leave a message revealing sensitive information if your voicemail does not identify you.

If you give us your mobile number or email address, or say you prefer a particular contact method, we take that as confirmation that you are happy to be contacted that way. We do not rely on your consent to use your information to correspond about your treatment: that is part of providing your care.

We cannot guarantee the security of information you send to us by ordinary email until we receive it.

Your rights

You have the right to:

access your information and receive a copy (free of charge in most cases);
have inaccurate information corrected;
have your information erased in some circumstances;
restrict how we use your information;
object to our use of your information where we rely on legitimate interests. This includes objecting to your consultation being recorded.
data portability, meaning you can receive information you gave us in a machine-readable format or have it sent to someone else;
withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent;
not be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing that significantly affect you.

Some rights do not apply in every case. For example, we must keep medical records for set periods. If we cannot meet a request, we will tell you why. We may ask you to confirm your identity before acting on a request.

Questions and complaints

If you have a question or concern about how we use your information, please contact our Practice Manager first at lauren@theorchardgroup.org.uk or 0117 427 6542. We will acknowledge your complaint and try to resolve it promptly.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or 0303 123 1113.

Cookies

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Other websites

Our website links to other websites that we do not control. This policy does not cover them, so please read their own privacy notices.

Changes to this policy

We review this policy regularly. The version number and date at the top show when it was last updated.