EasyMed Privacy Notice for Patients
Version 2026-10-30 · effective 30 October 2026
This notice explains how your personal information is used when you book and receive care from a psychiatrist or clinic through EasyMed. It is written to meet Articles 13 and 14 of the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018).
1. Who is responsible for your information
Two different organisations are responsible for different parts of your information.
| Who | What they are responsible for | Their role in law |
|---|---|---|
| Your psychiatrist or clinic (the clinician you book with) | Your clinical record: questionnaires, clinical notes, medication, titration and prescription records, reports, secure messages with your clinician, GP letters, and appointment details used for your care | Controller. They decide how your health information is used. |
| EasyMed (Ziad Soliman, a sole trader in the United Kingdom, trading as EasyMed; email ziad@easymed.uk) | Holding and processing your clinical record for your clinician, on their instructions | Processor for your clinical record |
| EasyMed | Your EasyMed account, login and security, payments, refunds and receipts, the doctor search and booking marketplace, ratings, fraud prevention and service messages | Controller for this account, billing and marketplace data |
Your clinician should give you their own privacy information, or confirm that they adopt Part B of this notice. If you have a question about your clinical record, ask your clinician first. EasyMed will pass on any request it receives about your clinical record to your clinician.
2. What information is used
| Category | Examples | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Identity and contact | Name, date of birth, gender, email, mobile number, home address and postcode (for home visits), and the approximate map location worked out from that postcode | You |
| Account and security | Login details (your password is stored only in scrambled, "hashed" form), device push-notification tokens, sign-in sessions, security and audit logs (including IP address and device type) | You and your device |
| Appointments | Doctor, date and time, appointment type, reason for booking, whether the reason triggered our emergency check, video link, attendance, cancellations, reschedules and follow-ups | You and your clinician |
| Pre-assessment questionnaires | PHQ-9 (mood), GAD-7 (anxiety), ASRS (adult ADHD), sleep, appetite and mood ratings, presenting complaint, psychiatric, medication, family and social history | You |
| Clinical record | Clinical notes, diagnoses made by your clinician, risk information, medication and titration records, blood pressure, pulse and weight readings, prescription records, reports, and care status updates from your clinician | Your clinician and you |
| Secure messages | Messages and attachments (photos or PDFs) between you and your clinician | You and your clinician |
| GP and pharmacy | Your GP's name and practice details; your nominated pharmacy | You and your clinician |
| Payment | Amount paid, date, refund status and receipts. EasyMed does not see or store your card number or any card details; you enter them directly into Stripe's payment form. | You and Stripe |
| Video consultations | The video link for your appointment. The call itself runs on the video service your clinician uses (see section 5). | Your clinician and their video service |
| Ratings | Your star rating and comment. Public reviews show "Verified patient", not your name. | You |
| Information from others (Article 14) | Referral letters, GP records or previous assessments sent to your clinician; GP details | Your GP, referrer, or previous provider |
Health information is "special category data". The law gives it extra protection, which is explained in section 4. EasyMed does not use biometric data (such as face recognition).
About secure messages. Messages travel between the app and EasyMed's servers over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection. They are not end-to-end encrypted: EasyMed's servers can read them, because they need to check incoming messages for crisis keywords (section 7) and keep them as part of your clinical record. Messages are stored in EasyMed's database without extra encryption. Only you and your clinician can open a conversation in the app; EasyMed staff have no screen for reading messages, but people who run the servers could technically access the database. Attachments are stored privately and opened only through links that expire after 15 minutes. Notifications about new messages never contain the message text. You can only message a clinician you have an upcoming appointment with, or saw in the last 12 months. Messages are not for emergencies and are not monitored around the clock.
3. Why your information is used and the lawful basis
Part A: where EasyMed is the controller
| Purpose | Lawful basis (UK GDPR Article 6) |
|---|---|
| Creating and running your account, and letting you search for and book doctors (including looking up addresses and postcodes you type in) | 6(1)(b) contract with you |
| Taking payment, issuing receipts, processing refunds | 6(1)(b) contract |
| Keeping financial records for tax | 6(1)(c) legal obligation |
| Sending booking confirmations, reminders, reschedule and cancellation notices by email, push notification and, for some updates, SMS | 6(1)(b) contract |
| Keeping the service secure, preventing fraud and misuse, keeping security and audit logs | 6(1)(f) legitimate interests (keeping patients, doctors and the platform safe) |
| Showing ratings and reviews of doctors (as "Verified patient") | 6(1)(f) legitimate interests (helping patients choose a doctor) |
| Improving the service using anonymised or aggregated statistics | 6(1)(f) legitimate interests |
| Marketing | EasyMed does not currently send marketing. If it starts, it will ask for your consent first (6(1)(a) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations). |
Part B: where your clinician is the controller (EasyMed acts on their behalf)
| Purpose | Lawful basis (Article 6) | Special category condition (Article 9) |
|---|---|---|
| Assessing you, diagnosing, treating and monitoring you, including medication titration and prescription tracking | 6(1)(b) contract for your care (self-pay). If your care is NHS-funded, 6(1)(e) public task. | 9(2)(h): health care and treatment, with DPA 2018 Schedule 1, Part 1, paragraph 2 (health or social care purposes). This applies because the processing is done by or under the responsibility of a health professional who owes a duty of confidentiality (Article 9(3) and DPA 2018 section 11). |
| Secure messaging with your clinician, including automatic crisis-keyword alerts (section 7) | Same as the care purpose above | 9(2)(h) with Sch.1 Part 1 para 2 |
| Keeping clinical records for the required period | 6(1)(c) legal obligation and professional duty | 9(2)(h) with Sch.1 Part 1 para 2 |
| Writing to your GP (for example a shared care request) | 6(1)(b) or 6(1)(e) | 9(2)(h) with Sch.1 Part 1 para 2. Your clinician will tell you before writing to your GP, and you can object. |
| Using EasyMed's AI drafting tool to prepare a draft report for your clinician to review (section 7) | Same as the care purpose above | 9(2)(h) with Sch.1 Part 1 para 2 |
| Managing a safeguarding or serious risk concern | 6(1)(c) or 6(1)(d) vital interests | 9(2)(h), or Sch.1 Part 2 para 18 (safeguarding), or 9(2)(c) vital interests |
Your clinician relies on their professional and legal duties, not your consent, to keep and use your clinical record. You still have the right to be told how it is used and the rights in section 9.
4. Special category data: health
Health data. Your clinician uses it under Article 9(2)(h) and DPA 2018 Sch.1 Part 1 para 2, as described above. In the app, only you and your clinician can see your clinical record and messages. EasyMed's administrators can see basic booking details (your name, phone number, clinician and appointment time) but have no screens for viewing patients' clinical records or messages. A small number of people who run EasyMed's servers could technically reach the database; they are bound by confidentiality. When your clinician views or changes your clinical notes, questionnaires, reports, medication and titration records, prescription records, messages or GP details in the app, this is logged in an audit trail your clinician can see. Care status notes are not covered by that audit trail, and direct access to the database is not logged by the app.
No biometric data. EasyMed does not use face recognition, selfie or liveness checks. An earlier test version of EasyMed used selfie and ID-document checks (mainly for doctors). Any images left from those checks are being deleted. If you took part in one of those checks and have a question, contact EasyMed (section 10).
5. Who your information is shared with
We share only what each recipient needs.
- Your clinician and their clinic team.
- Your GP, when your clinician writes to them as part of your care. EasyMed prepares the letter; your clinician sends it.
- Service providers (sub-processors) who run parts of EasyMed for us:
| Provider | What they do | What they receive | Where data is processed |
|---|---|---|---|
| WorldPosta | Hosts the EasyMed application, its database and backups on a server (CloudEdge), and sends EasyMed's emails (from no-reply@easymed.uk) | Everything stored in EasyMed's database; the content of emails | Hosting: Germany (EEA) |
| Amazon Web Services (AWS) | Secure file storage (S3) for message attachments and doctors' documents; SMS text messages (SNS) | Files you or your clinician upload; your mobile number and the SMS text | File storage: United Kingdom (London). SMS: United States |
| Stripe | Card payments and refunds | Payment amount, appointment time and EasyMed reference numbers. Your name, phone number, appointment location (your home address for a home visit), clinician's name, reason for booking and the emergency-check answer are encrypted by EasyMed before they are sent, so Stripe cannot read them. Your card details go directly to Stripe through its payment form. Stripe also acts as an independent controller for fraud prevention and its own legal duties. | Ireland (EEA) and United States |
| Google (Firebase Cloud Messaging), with Apple's push service for iPhones | Push notifications to your phone | Your device token and the notification text (see below) | United States |
| Anthropic | AI drafting of reports for clinician review (section 7) | The information listed in section 7 | United States |
| Geoapify | Address suggestions when you type an address | Only the address text you type, sent from EasyMed's server, with no name or account details | EU data centres (EEA) |
| postcodes.io (Ideal Postcodes) | Checking a postcode and finding its approximate location (for doctor search and home-visit distance) | Only the postcode, sent from EasyMed's server, with no name or account details | Not stated by the provider |
What notifications contain. Message notifications only say that you have a new message. Appointment emails include your clinician's name and the appointment date and time; booking emails also include the video link. Push notifications and text messages about appointments give the date and time but not your clinician's name. Prescription updates say that a prescription has been issued, posted, sent to your pharmacy, not approved, cancelled or has expired, and may include a postal tracking number; they do not name the medicine. They go by push notification, email and SMS. No notification contains your messages, questionnaire answers or clinical notes.
Video consultations. Your clinician chooses the video service for your appointment. If they use Google Meet through EasyMed, EasyMed creates the meeting in your clinician's own Google account, titled "EasyMed appointment", with the appointment time and no patient details. Otherwise your clinician gives a link to another video service of their choice (for example Zoom or Microsoft Teams). The video service carries the live call and processes the details of each person who joins, such as their name, IP address and device. Your clinician chooses and controls that service.
Your clinician's calendar. Your clinician can connect their Google Calendar so that EasyMed can read their own busy times and create video meetings as described above; none of your details are sent to Google through that connection. Separately, your clinician can subscribe to a private calendar feed of their EasyMed appointments in a calendar app of their choice (for example Google, Apple or Microsoft). Each entry shows your initials, the appointment type and the location (the clinic, or "Home visit" rather than your address), but not your reason for booking or the video link. Your clinician chooses and controls that calendar provider.
Cloudflare provides EasyMed's domain name service only; it does not handle your data.
- Professional advisers, insurers and regulators where needed (for example the CQC, GMC or ICO) or where the law requires it (for example a court order).
- A buyer of EasyMed's business, under confidentiality, if the business is sold. Your clinical record would remain under your clinician's control.
We never sell your information and never use your health information for advertising.
6. How long information is kept
Retention of your clinical record is decided by your clinician as controller. EasyMed's default periods follow the NHS England Records Management Code of Practice. Private providers in England commonly treat it as best practice, and medical defence organisations advise following it. The retention periods it lists "must always be considered the minimum period".
| Information | Default retention | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Mental health records, including psychiatric notes, questionnaires, medication, titration and prescription records, reports and secure messages with your clinician | 20 years after care ends, or 10 years after death. Longer if you were detained under the Mental Health Act and the case is ongoing. | Records Management Code: "Mental health records (including psychology)". This is the category that applies to most psychiatric care. |
| Adult health records not covered by a specific category | 8 years after care ends | Records Management Code: "Adult health records not covered elsewhere" |
| Children and young people (care that began under 18) | Until the 25th birthday, or 26th if aged 17 when care ended. If the mental health period is longer, the longer period applies. | Records Management Code |
| GP letters | EasyMed prepares the letter for your clinician to send and does not keep a copy of the letter itself. The information it is built from is part of the clinical record. | As above |
| AI drafts | The AI draft is kept with the report, as part of the clinical record. | As above |
| Account details (name, contact details, login) | While your account is open. When you close your account, your login and contact details are deleted and you can no longer sign in. Your name and date of birth stay with your clinical record for as long as it is kept. | Contract, clinical record-keeping and limitation periods |
| Payment, refund and receipt records | 6 years after the end of the financial year | HMRC record-keeping rules |
| Sign-in sessions | End after 30 days without use (each time the app renews your session, a new 30-day period starts); expired session records are deleted daily | Security |
| Device push tokens | Switched off when you sign out or your sessions are revoked, and deleted when you close your account | Security |
| Ratings and reviews | There is no way to delete a rating in the app; ask EasyMed. Ratings stay on the clinician's profile, shown as "Verified patient", after you close your account. | Legitimate interests |
| Application logs (no health information or message content) | Up to 30 days; error logs up to 90 days | Security |
| Audit trail (who viewed or changed a record, when, from which IP address and device) | Kept with the records it relates to | Security and accountability |
| Database backups | Up to 35 days (one copy each night) | Recovery after a fault |
| Images left from the old identity check | Being deleted | Data minimisation |
When a clinician leaves EasyMed, their records are returned to them or moved to a system they choose, so they can meet their retention duties. EasyMed then deletes its copy.
7. AI-drafted reports, crisis keyword alerts and automated decision-making
AI-drafted reports. Your clinician may use an AI tool built into EasyMed, powered by Anthropic's Claude model, to draft a report.
- What is sent to Anthropic: your age in years, your clinician's name and clinic location (for a home visit, only the words "Home visit"), the appointment date, your pre-assessment answers (presenting complaint, symptoms, psychiatric, medication, family and social history), your PHQ-9, GAD-7 and ASRS scores and sleep, appetite and mood ratings, and your clinician's consultation notes. Your name and date of birth are not sent. Before sending, EasyMed's software removes names, dates of birth, contact details, postcodes, addresses and numbers that it finds in the free text; it may not catch every identifying detail.
- The AI writes a draft only. It is instructed not to suggest any diagnosis, treatment, medication or risk level. EasyMed's software then removes any diagnosis, opinion, plan or treatment sections and any diagnostic codes from the draft; it cannot catch every such phrase in the narrative, which is one reason your clinician must check the whole draft. The diagnosis and plan sections are left blank for your clinician to write.
- Your clinician always reviews, edits and approves every report. A report cannot be finalised until your clinician has written the diagnosis and plan themselves. All diagnosis and treatment decisions are made by your clinician. Draft reports are visible only to your clinician.
- Anthropic processes the information only to return the draft. Under its commercial terms it does not use the data to train its models.
You can ask your clinician not to use the AI drafting tool for your care.
Crisis keyword alerts. When you send a message, or type a reason for booking, EasyMed's software checks it for words that may mean you are in crisis. This is a simple word check, not AI. If it matches, you are shown urgent help information (999, NHS 111, Samaritans), and for messages your clinician gets an "urgent attention" alert by push notification and email (the alert does not contain your message). When booking, you are asked to confirm that the situation is not a life-threatening emergency. The check can miss things and can flag messages that are not urgent. It does not replace calling 999 or NHS 111.
No solely automated decisions. There is no solely automated decision-making about you with legal or similarly significant effects within the meaning of UK GDPR Article 22 (as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025). No profiling of you is carried out. Two automatic steps affect appointments: an appointment that is still open 48 hours after its start time is marked as "no-show" unless your clinician has updated it, and refunds when you cancel are worked out automatically from your clinician's cancellation policy. You can ask your clinician to review either.
8. International transfers
EasyMed's servers and database are in Germany, in the European Economic Area (EEA). The UK recognises the EEA as giving adequate protection, so no extra safeguard is needed for that. Some providers process data outside the UK and EEA, mainly in the United States (AWS text messages, Stripe, Google and Anthropic, and possibly the video service your clinician uses). When this happens we use one of these legal safeguards:
- UK–US "data bridge" (the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework), for US providers certified to it on the official Data Privacy Framework List. It is in force under The Data Protection (Adequacy) (United States of America) Regulations 2023. If the bridge falls away, we will rely on option 2.
- The ICO's International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA), or the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the UK Addendum, supported by a transfer risk assessment.
- Adequacy regulations for the EEA, for providers processing in Germany, Ireland or elsewhere in the EEA.
You can ask us for a copy of the safeguard used for any transfer (contact details in section 10).
9. Your rights
You have the right to:
- Access your information (a "subject access request"). Free in most cases; we reply within one month.
- Correct inaccurate information. A clinician may add your comments rather than change a clinical opinion.
- Delete information. This right is limited for clinical records that your clinician must keep by law. Closing your account in the app deletes your login and contact details and stops you signing in, but does not delete your clinical record (section 6). You cannot close your account while you have upcoming confirmed appointments.
- Restrict how it is used, in some circumstances.
- Object to use based on legitimate interests or public task.
- Data portability: receive information you gave us in a common electronic format, where the basis is consent or contract. You can download a copy of your account data and the information you gave in the app; your clinician's notes, reports and medication records can be requested from your clinician or EasyMed.
- Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on consent (for example marketing, if we ever send it).
- Object to direct marketing at any time. This right is absolute.
To use your rights about your clinical record, contact your clinician. For your account or payments, contact EasyMed. If you contact the wrong one, we will pass your request on.
10. Contact, complaints and the ICO
- EasyMed privacy contact: Ziad Soliman, ziad@easymed.uk
- Data Protection Officer: EasyMed has not appointed a Data Protection Officer. Privacy questions go to the contact above.
- Your clinician: contact them through the EasyMed app or the contact details they gave you.
Complaints. Please complain to us or your clinician first. We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and tell you the outcome without undue delay.
If you are unhappy with the response, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO):
- Online: ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint
- Phone: 0303 123 1113
- Post: Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF
For concerns about the quality of care, contact your clinician's clinic, the CQC (if the clinic is registered) or the GMC.
11. Changes to this notice
We will update this notice when our processing changes, and tell you about significant changes by email or in the app. Last updated: 30 October 2026.
If you need urgent help with your mental health, EasyMed is not an emergency service. Call 999 in an emergency, call NHS 111 (select the mental health option), or call Samaritans free on 116 123.