Are you ready for GDPR?
Don’t be tempted to sideline your responsibilities under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation, the BDA has urged dentists in Northern Ireland.
GDPR is the EU regulation intended to strengthen and unify data protection for all individuals within the European Union (EU). It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU.
Many high-street dentists and dental practices are actually in a good position to deal with the requirements of the GDPR as dentistry has been a heavily regulated profession, and many practice owners already follow stringent data protection procedures and have robust policies in place.
However, there are some strengthened and new layers of compliance that will be required and you need to ensure that you have all the right structures and systems in place before 25 May to ensure your dental practice will be compliant when the regulation comes into force.
If you are geared up to give individuals their rights now, then the transition to the GDPR should be relatively easy, especially for dental practices that have a data protection policy in place and are registered with ICO.
It is a good time to check your procedures and to work out how you would react if someone asks to have their data deleted, for example.
Would your systems help you to locate and delete the data? Who will make the decisions about deletion?
