Privacy Policy for Afri Health Solutions

At Afri Health Solutions, we are committed to protecting your privacy and the confidentiality of your personal and health information. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your information when you use our services, including our website and telehealth platforms. This policy applies to all external third parties with whom we have dealings with, who are not employees, workers or contractors, but does not form part of any contract to provide services. Please ensure that you read this policy sometimes referred to as a (privacy notice) and any other notices we may provide from time to time and when we collect or process personal information in order that you are aware of how and why we a re using your personal information.

1. Information We Collect

We may collect various types of information, including:

Personal Identification Information: Such as your name, contact details (phone numbers for general, corporate, accounts, and emergencies, and email address), and physical addresses (for our practices in Pimville, Thembisa, and Sandton and information provided through online platforms.
Health Information: When you utilize our health risk management and wellness services, including Incapacity and Disability management, Medical Surveillance, Return-To-Work Programs, Management of Primary Healthcare, Chronic Disease Management, and Mental Health services. This may include medical history, diagnoses, treatment plans, and other relevant health data.
Technical Data: Information about your interaction with our website and telehealth services, such as IP address, browser type, operating system, and usage patterns.

2. Who collects the information

Afri Health Solutions is a “data controller” and gathers and uses information about you. We are also responsible in deciding how we hold and use personal information about you. Please note that we may process your personal information without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the below rules where this is required or permitted by law.

3. How We Use Your Information

We will only use your personal information when the law allows us to. Your information is used for the following purposes:

Service Delivery: When we need to perform the contract we have entered into with you. To provide and manage the health risk management and wellness services you request, including telemedicine consultations. Where we need to protect your interests (or those of a third party.
Communication: To communicate with you regarding your appointments, services, inquiries, and to provide important updates. In instances where you have already made the information public.
Improving Services: To analyze and improve the quality and effectiveness of our services, website, and telemedicine platforms.
Compliance: Where we need to comply with a legal obligation. To comply with legal and regulatory requirements, including health and data protection laws in South Africa. Where it is needed in the public interest or for official purposes. We seek to ensure that our information collection and processing is always proportionate. In most circumstances with your explicit written consent as presented in our consent document.
Administrative Purposes: To register you as a new client. To manage our relationship with you which may include you about changes to our terms or privacy policy. Business management and planning, including accounting and auditing. For internal record-keeping, billing, and administrative functions. Dealing with legal disputes involving you, or other third parties. We may also process such information about external third parties or former external third parties we had dealings with in the course of legitimate business activities with the appropriate safeguards.

4. How We Share Your Information

We understand the sensitive nature of your health information. We may share your information in the following limited circumstances:

With Your Consent: We will obtain your explicit consent before sharing your health information with third parties not directly involved in your care.
Healthcare Providers: With other healthcare professionals involved in your care, as necessary for treatment and coordination of services.
Service Providers: With trusted third-party service providers who assist us in operating our business and delivering services (e.g., IT support, billing services), under strict confidentiality agreements. All third-party service providers and other entities with whom we share data are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in line with our policies and is bound by confidentiality obligations. Third parties are required to respect the security of your data and to treat it in accordance with the law.
Legal Requirements: When required by law, court order, or government regulation.
Emergencies: In situations where it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another person (e.g., in medical emergencies).

We will never sell or rent your personal or health information to third parties for marketing purposes.

5. How long we keep your information

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose we have collected it for, including the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purpose for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. In some cases we may anonymise your personal information so that it cannot be associated with you, in which case we may use such information without further notice to you.

6. Data Security

We implement robust security measures to protect your personal and health information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. These measures include:

Technical Safeguards: Encryption, firewalls, secure servers, and access controls.
Administrative Safeguards: Employee training ensures that those processing your information do so in an authorized manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality and in line with confidentiality agreements, and strict internal policies and procedures.
Physical Safeguards: Secure storage of physical records, if any.

7. Your Rights in connection with personal information

Depending on the applicable laws, you may have the following rights regarding your personal and health information:

Right to Access: To request access to the personal and health information we hold about you. This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you to and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Right to Rectification: To request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information. This enables you to have any information we have about you corrected.
Right to Erasure: To request the deletion of your information, subject to legal obligations. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us to continue processing it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing. (See below).
Right to Object: To object to the processing of your information in certain circumstances. Object to the processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
Right to restriction of processing: To request the restriction of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.

Right to Data Portability: To request a copy of your information in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format to another party.
Right to withdraw consent: in the limited circumstances where you have provided your consent to the collection, processing and transfer of your personal information for specific purposes, you have the right to withdraw your consent for that specific processing at any time. To withdraw your consent you have to do it in writing in a notification to Afri Health Solutions. Once we have received your notification we will not process your information for the purpose you originally agreed to, unless we have another legitimate basis for doing so in law.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details provided below.

8. Third-Party Links

Our website may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of these external sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party websites you visit.

9. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. We will post the updated policy on our website with a revised "Last Updated" date. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

10. Payment request

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal information (or to exercise any of the rights) However we may charge a reasonable fee if your request for access is clearly unfounded or excessive. Alternatively we may refuse to comply with the request in such circumstances.

11. What we may need from you

We may need specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access the information (or to exercise any of the other rights). This is another appropriate security measure to ensure that the personal information is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

12. If you fail to provide your personal information

If you fail to provide correct personal information for the purpose for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and the reason is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allow us to do so.

13. How to complain

We hope that the CEO and the directors of Afri Health Solutions can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information. Contact the CEO for intervention by email at drletoaba@afrihealthsolutions.org.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

Afri Health Solutions

General Contact Number: 087 265 8551 Corporate Clients: 087 265 2454 Accounts: 011 985 7245 Emergencies: 083 209 1649 Email: info@afrihealthsolutions.org

Practice Locations:

Sandton: Dr Ward Omlee Office Park Tambach Road Petervale
832 Dhlebelendlovu street Zone 1 Pimville 1809
Thembisa shop 36 Thembisa Megamart Corner Olifantsfontein road and Algeria road Thembisa 1632:

Thank you for trusting Afri Health Solutions with your health and well-being.