Privacy notice

How we look after your information

This notice explains what information we hold about you, why, who we share it with and what your rights are. It is written in plain English. If anything is unclear, ask us.

Last updated 7 November 2026.

Who we are

Enfield Eye Service is a trading name of The Cataract Centre Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, number 03336479. Our registered office is 93 Tabernacle Street, London EC2A 4BA. Our clinic is at Lincoln Road Medical Practice, Lincoln Road, Enfield EN1 1LJ. We provide NHS eye care and are registered with the Care Quality Commission.

The Cataract Centre Limited is the data controller for the information described in this notice. Questions about your information go to our Data Protection Officer: write to the clinic address above, marking your letter "Data Protection", or call 020 3198 7001.

The information we hold

If you are a patient: your name, date of birth, address, phone number and email; your NHS number; your GP and the optician who referred you; your referral letter; notes of your appointments, test results, eye images and measurements; details of any operation; letters we send and receive about your care; and anything you tell us that helps us care for you, such as a language you prefer or an interpreter you need.

If you support a patient: your name and contact details, and your relationship to the patient, where the patient has given them to us.

If you contact us: what you send us through this website, by email, by post or by phone, and our reply.

If you are an optician or GP: your name, practice and contact details, and the referrals and letters we exchange.

Why we use it, and the law that allows us to

To care for you. We use your information to assess, treat and follow up your eye condition, to book and remind you of appointments, to write to your GP and optician about your care, and to arrange your operation at the hospital where it takes place. The law we rely on is UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e), a task carried out in the public interest, because we provide this care on behalf of the NHS, together with Article 9(2)(h), the provision of health care, and paragraph 2 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018. Everyone who sees your record is bound by a duty of confidentiality.

To run a safe service. We check the quality of our care, investigate incidents and complaints, train staff, and take part in national clinical audits such as the National Ophthalmology Database Audit. Where we can, we use information that does not identify you. The law we rely on is Article 6(1)(e) with Article 9(2)(h) and 9(2)(i).

Because the law requires it. We report to the Care Quality Commission, NHS England and other regulators, we act on safeguarding concerns, and we respond to courts. The law we rely on is Article 6(1)(c), a legal obligation.

To reply to you. When you send us a message or a complaint, we use your details to respond. The law we rely on is Article 6(1)(e) and, for complaints that involve your care, Article 9(2)(h).

We do not use your information for marketing. We do not sell it. We do not make decisions about you by computer alone.

Your GP and the optician who referred you, so that the people who look after your general health and your glasses know what we found and did.
The hospital where your operation takes place, currently Nuffield Health Highgate Hospital, 17 to 19 View Road, Highgate, London N6 4DJ, so that the surgical team has what it needs on the day.
The NHS organisations that commission and pay for your care, NHS England and North Central London Integrated Care Board. Where they check our invoices, they use information that does not identify you wherever possible.
National NHS systems that keep your NHS record accurate and let other NHS services that treat you see essential information.
Regulators, auditors and the courts, where the law requires it.
Companies that provide services to us, such as our clinical records system, our telephone system and the company that hosts this website. They act only on our instructions, under written contracts, and may not use your information for their own purposes.

We do not transfer your health records outside the United Kingdom.

The national data opt-out

You can choose not to have your confidential patient information used for research and planning. We respect that choice where it applies. It does not affect your own care. Find out more at nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.

How long we keep it

We keep health records for the periods set out in the NHS Records Management Code of Practice. For most adult patients that is eight years after your last contact with us. Records of complaints are kept for ten years. A message sent through this website that does not lead to an appointment is kept for twelve months and then deleted.

Your rights

To see your information. You can ask for a copy of your records. It is free, and we reply within one month.
To correct it if something is wrong.
To object to a use of your information, and to ask us to restrict it while we consider your objection.
To have it deleted, in limited cases. We cannot delete a health record while the law requires us to keep it, but we will explain why.
To receive it in a portable form, where the information was given to us with your consent or under a contract.

To use any of these rights, call us or write to the clinic address, marked "Data Protection". We may ask you to prove who you are before we release anything.

Keeping it safe

Your records are stored on secure systems with access limited to the staff who need them. Every member of staff is trained in confidentiality and data protection, and is bound by a confidentiality clause in their contract. As an organisation with access to NHS patient data we are required to complete the NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit every year. If we ever lose or expose your information in a way that could harm you, we will tell you and, where the law requires it, the Information Commissioner's Office.

This website

Cookies. This website does not set cookies. It has no advertising, no analytics and no tracking.

Your display choices. If you change the text size or switch on softer light, the site remembers that in your own browser, on your own device, so you do not have to set it again. Nothing is sent to us. Clearing your browser's site data removes it.

Listen. The Listen button uses the voice built into your browser. The text is read aloud on your device. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Hosting. The website is served by Cloudflare, which may process your internet address and request details for a short time to protect the site from attack. Cloudflare acts as our processor under its standard terms, which include the UK data protection safeguards.

The contact form. What you type in the form is sent to our clinic email inbox by a secure email delivery service acting as our processor, and is then handled as described above. The form is not for medical details, and it is not monitored out of hours. If your sight changes suddenly, do not use it: call us, call NHS 111, or in an emergency 999.

Links to other websites. We link to NHS, Care Quality Commission and map services. Their own privacy notices apply once you leave this site.

If you are unhappy about how we use your information

Please tell us first, so we can put it right: call 020 3198 7001 or write to the clinic. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, telephone 0303 123 1113, or Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Changes to this notice

We review this notice at least once a year and whenever the way we use information changes. The date at the top shows when it was last updated.