Patch and Purr Privacy Policy

Last updated: 24 March 2025.

Welcome to Patch and Purr Vets privacy notice. Patch and Purr vets is a trading of name of Kitchen and Hammond Ltd.

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data.

This notice explains how we collect, use, and protect information about you, who we may share it with, and the rights that you have. This notice covers most of the ways in which you will interact with us, through the website, pet’s app, in our surgery and on social media.

It is important that you read this notice so that you understand how we look after and process your personal data, and so that you are aware of your privacy rights and how the law protects you.

If we need to use your personal data in different ways, or for reasons not covered by this notice, we will let you know. This could include notifications, signage in specific locations or other messages. We will also update this notice from time to time.

Please also note that this notice does not apply to data about your animal, which are covered by the Royal College of Veterinary Service (RCVS) guidelines. Data related solely to animals is not subject to data protection law.

Where you use our websites or apps and click on external links, or visit our social media pages, your personal data may also be processed by the providers of those services – for example Meta (Facebook) or PetsApp. Those sites will collect further information about you for their own purposes, separately from Patch and Purr Vets. Please take the time to review their applicable privacy policies.

Personal data that we collect includes:

Personal identifiers and contact details
Customer service information
Financial information, including payments made, bank account information, credit card/debit card number and credit status
Information about how you use our website, social media pages and app.

We will process these personal data for the following purposes and based on the following legal bases:

Provide the services you are using or have requested and manage payment for them as part of our contract with you.
Improve our services
Manage our online and other services effectively and securely.
Meet legal and regulatory obligations, to prevent or detect crime, or in the public interest, including protection of animal welfare. Such processing is necessary for compliance with legal obligations we are subject to, and in our and third parties’ legitimate interests to protect animal welfare
Conduct marketing activities and provide information about products and services that may be of interest to you. This may include using your contact details to get in touch, where we feel there would be a health benefit to your animal. Such processing is in our legitimate interests to communicate with our customers, and where required by applicable law, conducted with your consent

If you do not want us to use some of your personal data, we may not be able to provide services to you – for example, if you fail to provide your payment details, we may not be able to sign your pet up to a health plan and you will not receive any associated benefits.

We do not normally collect or use ‘special category’ personal data, such as health data, except where it is provided to us in the context of a customer query or claim, in which case we process such data in accordance with your consent or as necessary to exercise or defend our legal claims.

How we collect your personal data

We use different methods to collect personal data. These include:

Directly from you
Interaction from our website or social media pages
Third parties - we may receive the categories of personal data set out above in Section 2 about you from third parties such as:

Providers of technical, payment and delivery services, Credit reference agencies, referral from another practice, Debt recovery agencies, Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and other veterinary specialists, laboratories and animal health providers and agencies, where the personal data cannot be anonymised or is otherwise necessary.

Marketing and Consent Preferences

You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at info@patchandpurr.co.uk. We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you ask us to provide further products and services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

Who we share your personal data with

As well as using service providers to support our business (data processors), we might share information with other organisations who are also Controllers. This may include:

Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, (a) in our legitimate interests to protect animal welfare and better our clinics’ practicing standards; or (b) consent (where consent is required by applicable law); or (c) as necessary to comply with applicable laws
Other veterinary specialists, laboratories and animal health providers and agencies, where the personal data cannot be anonymised,(a) as necessary to perform a contract with you, for example, to assist with diagnosis of animals; or (b) in our legitimate interests to protect animal welfare; or (c) consent (where consent is required by applicable law) for the advancement of veterinary medical research
Insurance and related companies, and other professional and legal advisors as necessary in our legitimate interests in running a successful business
Debt recovery agencies as necessary to perform a contract with you or in our legitimate interests in running a successful business
Law enforcement, fraud prevention agencies and other public authorities as necessary to comply with applicable law
Advertisers and advertising networks that require the personal data to select and serve relevant adverts to you (such as Meta Ads Manager) with your consent
Companies approved by you (such as social media sites) as necessary to perform a contract with you or take steps requested by you prior to entering into a contract, or in our legitimate interest to run a successful business

Where any part of our business is outsourced, sold, merged, or subject to bankruptcy or other business transaction or re-organisation and where permitted by law, we will share your personal data with the new provider so that services can continue to be provided to you as necessary in our legitimate interests to run a successful business.

Keeping your personal data secure

We have security and other measures in place to help protect your personal data and limit how it can be accessed or used, and to identify and handle suspected breaches of personal data and other security threats.

Data retention

We will retain your personal data for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including:

• for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax or reporting requirements.

• as needed to defend or pursue legal claims; and/or

• as required for legitimate business purposes (such as administering services to you).

In most cases, your personal data will be retained for a maximum of 7 years from the date at which we stopped providing services to you.

Being in control of your own information

Under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, you have some important rights available to you. In connection with these rights, you may, in certain circumstances:

Request information about how we are using your personal data
Request a copy of your personal data
Request that we correct any personal data that is inaccurate
Request that we delete your personal data
Where you have been asked for and given us your consent to processing of your personal data, withdraw that consent
Request that we stop processing all or part of your personal data
Exercise a right to object or restrict or suspend us from processing your personal data. If you do object to, restrict, or suspend our processing of your personal data, we may not be able to provide services to you
Request that we transfer elements of your personal data to another company

Some of these rights may be limited in some circumstances, or subject to exemptions. If you want to exercise your rights, or to make a complaint, please contact us at info@patchandpurr.co.uk

If we cannot resolve a complaint as you would wish, you may also make a complaint to the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (“ICO”) via their website.

Changes to this privacy notice and your duty to inform us of changes

We keep our privacy notice under regular review and will update it from time to time. If we do, we will post the revised version here and change the date above and/or contact you directly where we deem appropriate to do so under applicable law. You should check here regularly for the most up-to-date version of the notice.

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us by contacting info@patchandpurr.co.uk or by visiting us in practice.

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