The AVG is the law that protects privacy and personal data. Under this law, any organization that works with personal data has certain obligations, and individuals whose data is used have specific rights. In addition to this general law, specific rules apply regarding privacy in healthcare. These are set out, among others, in the Dutch Medical Treatment Agreement Act (WGBO). This privacy policy is intended to inform you about your rights and our obligations under the GDPR and WGBO.
At our midwifery practice, various personal data about you is processed. This is necessary to provide you with appropriate medical care and to manage the financial aspects of that care. Additionally, processing may be required, for example, to combat serious health risks or to comply with legal obligations (such as mandatory reporting of infectious diseases under the Public Health Act).
Midwifery Practice Witsenkade is, according to the GDPR, the controller for the processing of personal data carried out in our practice. We meet the obligations arising from this role in the following ways:
You have the following rights:
To exercise your rights, you can make a verbal request or use a form to contact Midwifery Practice Witsenkade. A representative (like an authorized person, your guardian, or mentor) may also act on your behalf.
According to the WGBO, a patient is considered legally competent from the age of 16. Individuals aged 16 and over must submit requests for access or copies of their medical record themselves. If the patient is deceased, medical data may be provided if it can be assumed that the deceased would not have objected or if there are compelling interests that justify breaking confidentiality. This decision lies with the care provider.
All staff members of Midwifery Practice Witsenkade are bound to keep your data confidential. This means that your care provider generally needs your explicit consent to share your personal data. There are exceptions: legal obligations or serious health risks to you or others may override confidentiality. Additionally, your data may be shared (verbally, in writing, or digitally) with other healthcare providers (e.g., gynaecologists, midwives, or GPs) if necessary.
To continuously improve care for pregnant women and babies, personal data is included in a national register: the perinatal registry. We, as your midwife, as well as other involved healthcare providers such as gynecologists, general practitioners, and pediatricians, contribute data to this registry. The organisation Perined manages these records.
By combining the data of all pregnancies and births in the Netherlands, we can better align and further improve maternity and newborn care. Healthcare providers regularly review the care they have provided together, sometimes using data from the perinatal registry for this purpose.
Opting out: If you do not want your data to be included in the perinatal registry, you can easily opt out. Send an email to info@witsenkade.nl with your name and date of birth. We will process your opt-out request and send you a confirmation.
Scientific research: The collected data is also used for scientific research. The data is fully anonymized — researchers cannot identify individuals from the data. Only if you explicitly give consent can researchers access your identifiable information.
Would you like to know more about how Perined handles your data and protects your privacy? Please visit www.perined.nl, under ‘About Perined’ and then ‘Privacy’.
Birth announcements sent to our practice are displayed in public areas (hallways, waiting room, office, consulting room). These may be read by anyone visiting our practice. By sending the card, we assume you consent. If you prefer us not to display it, please mention this on the card.
A few days after birth, we write the name of the parent and baby on a mirror in the waiting room. Surnames are not included. If you would prefer we don’t write your names, please let us know during pregnancy.
With your explicit consent, Witsenkade Midwifery Practice securely shares relevant medical information with other healthcare providers, such as gynaecologists, paediatricians, maternity nurses, and youth healthcare services. If you’ve visited a gynaecologist, they will share their findings and treatment plan with us.
We may also share medication information with your pharmacy and medical specialists, including prescriptions, allergies, intolerances, and contraindications. This helps ensure medication safety.
If you choose a new midwife, it is important they are informed of your medical history. Your medical history is stored in your patient record. It is standard practice for your previous midwife to transfer this to your new midwife, usually within a month of your request.
If you have any questions or complaints, such as about data sharing or how we handle your medical information, please feel free to discuss them with your midwife.
At Witsenkade Midwifery Practice, we highly value your privacy when using our website. To protect your privacy, we uphold the following core principles:
This privacy statement explains how we apply these principles and protect your privacy.
When using our website and services, you may provide us with personal data. We only store and use personal data provided directly by you or clearly submitted to us for processing.
Depending on the service, we may collect:
These details are used for purposes such as:
Your data will not be shared with third parties unless required to fulfil our agreement with you or by law.
We take security seriously and prevent unauthorized access to personal data. Website statistics are collected anonymously. No statistics are kept in areas where medical data is exchanged.
We do not retain your data longer than necessary for the stated purposes, unless legal obligations require otherwise.
This privacy policy does not apply to third-party websites linked from ours. We advise reading their policies before using those websites.
We use cookies on our website. A cookie is a small file stored on your device. It may be returned to our servers or those of third parties during future visits.
We use Google Analytics to analyze website usage, excluding logged-in users. We have anonymized IP addresses, disallowed Google from using the data for other services, and signed a data processing agreement. The data is processed in the U.S. under the Privacy Shield Framework.
Persistent cookies help us recognize you during future visits, saving preferences and improving your experience. These can be deleted via browser settings.
Session cookies help track pages visited during your session and are deleted when your browser is closed.
We respect your privacy. By submitting forms, you consent to our handling of your personal data for contacting you or managing your patient file.
We reserve the right to modify this statement. Please check it regularly to stay informed.
For questions about our privacy policy or to access, modify, or delete your data, feel free to contact us at any time.
Midwifery Practice Witsenkade
Nicolaas Witsenkade 35-sous
1017 ZT Amsterdam
info@witsenkade.nl
Tel: 020 – 627 9767