Privacy Policy

Last Updated: October 29, 2024

Crestcare (Pty) Ltd (“Crestcare”) takes the issue of collecting and processing your personal information seriously. Crestcare is committed to protecting your personal information and to informing you of your rights with respect to your personal information.

1. INTRODUCTION

2. SCOPE

This Policy applies to anyone (you, your) who interacts with us, including identifiable Juristic Persons in South Africa (such as an incorporated company), who enquires about our services or who makes use of them, via any media including electronic media such as email, website, apps, telephone etc.

This policy applies to a Crestcare patient, employee, agent, consultant, supplier, service provider or any other stakeholder to whom Crestcare is providing or may provide services or who is or is seeking to provide services to Crestcare.

Reference to “Crestcare” in this policy includes any hospital that carries the Crestcare name or is operated by Crestcare, including (but not limited to):

Crestcare Head Office (Bryanston, Johannesburg);
Crestcare Zoutpansberg;
Nelspruit Surgiclinic (to be renamed Crestcare Nelspruit);
Crestcare Malmesbury;
Apex Surgi Centre (Soweto); and
St Mary’s Hospital (Mthatha)

3. WHAT IS PERSONAL INFORMATION AND PROCESSING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Personal Information and Special Personal Information is information which identifies you as an individual or juristic person and includes:

your biometric information;
your name if it appears with your other personal information or if your name itself would reveal information about you;
information relating to your gender, marital status, national origin, age, language and birth;
information relating to your education, criminal or employment history;
any identifying number symbol, e-mail address, physical address, telephone number, location information, online identifier or other particular assignment to you;
any other information defined as “Personal Information” or “Special Personal Information” in terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act 4 of 2013 ("POPIA").

“Processing” is defined in POPIA as follows:

“Any operation or activity or any set of operations, whether or not by automatic means, concerning personal information, including-

the collection, receipt, recording, organisation, collation, storage, updating or modification, retrieval, alteration, consultation or use;
dissemination by means of transmission, distribution or making available in any form; or
merging, linking, as well as restriction, degradation, erasure or destruction of information.”

4. PURPOSES FOR WHICH CRESTCARE MAY USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Crestcare may collect your personal information through your access to and use of this website, during conversations or correspondence with Crestcare’s representatives, or when you use Crestcare’s products or services.

4.1 Why does Crestcare collect your information

The types of personal information which Crestcare may process includes (but is not limited to) the following:

Identification document;
Curriculum vitae data, including professional and employment history and education;
Proof of residential/business operating address, postal address, billing address;
Email addresses;
Contact numbers;
Income Tax registration or other tax identification number;
VAT registration number (if applicable per individual/legal entity);
Banking details where you are required to make a payment to Crestcare or we are required to remit a payment to you or as part of a bank reference or statement provided to us during a due diligence exercise;
Source of funds;
Information you provide as part of your hospital admission or to obtain medical treatment;
For Juristic Persons, we may also collect documents to establish your identity and existence, including the business activities, financial position, transactions, tax-related information, regulated status, listed status, directors, management, control, shareholdings, and beneficial ownership;
Marketing preferences in receiving marketing from us and our third parties and your communication preferences;
Any additional information relating to you that you provide to us.

You are responsible for providing us with accurate and up-to-date information. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes during your relationship with us.

When you provide us with information about other individuals or juristic persons in connection with your dealings with us, you must ensure that they agree to Crestcare using their information as set out in our letter of engagement or agreement and you will need to tell them how to access Crestcare’s Privacy Policy.

Crestcare may also collate and hold data found from the results of internet searches and other sources in the public domain as well as third-party service providers in the course of our employee and client due diligence and review process, and in providing the products/services that we are engaged to provide.

4.2 What information does Crestcare collect?

5. WHY DOES CRESTCARE REQUIRE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

Personal Information that is provided to Crestcare by you will only be used for the purposes for which it was provided as well as the purposes listed in this Privacy Policy.

Crestcare may use your information:

to establish contact with you;
to provide products or services to you;
to manage our relationship with you;
to communicate with you about Crestcare’s services;
to improve our products or services;
to process your hospital admission;
to make an online appointment;
to assess any medical treatment you may require;
to process your admission or any other enquiry;
for statistical and research purposes;
to answer enquiries, provide information, support or advice about existing and new services;
to process and respond to any complaint made by you;
to populate the information required on the various onboarding and engagement platforms;
for internal administrative and research purposes in the normal course of managing Crestcare’s business and to improve Crestcare’s services and stakeholder communications.

If you subscribe to our services, news, announcements, alerts or any such information to be emailed to you from Crestcare; - we will hold your details on our database until such time as you choose to unsubscribe from this service. You may unsubscribe at any stage by selecting the appropriate option in the application or emailing info@crestcare.co.za.

We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy, which includes hosting on secure servers, encryption of transactions and password protection. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and we will never ask you to share your password.

Crestcare will only retain your personal information for as long as it is necessary. We undertake to delete your personal information once we no longer require such information. We will keep your personal information for only so long as we need it:

for the provision of the good/ services;
to fulfil the purposes described in this Privacy Policy; or
to use it for any other purpose as may be required or permitted by applicable laws and regulations.

6. STORING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

8. PROTECTION OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We implement generally accepted standards of technology and operational security in order to protect personal information from loss, misuse, alteration or destruction. Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not always completely secure. Please therefore be advised that we cannot fully eliminate security risks associated with the storage and transmission of personal information and any submission of personal information is at your own risk. We will however take all reasonable and necessary steps in order to ensure that your personal information is sufficiently protected.

Links to other applications and websites: please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to the practices of companies that we do not own or control or to people that we do not employ or manage. Our website may provide a link or otherwise provide access to third party sites. We provide these links merely for your convenience. We have no control over, do not review, and are not responsible for third party sites or applications, their content, or any goods or services available through the third party sites. Our Privacy Policy does not apply to third party applications or sites, and any data you provide to third party applications or sites, you provide at your own risk. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party applications or sites that you may interact with.

7. DISCLOSURE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Crestcare may disclose your personal information to a third party if (a) authorised to do so by law, (b) you have provided consent and/or (c) it is required for proper medical treatment and care.

When Crestcare shares your information with any third party, such third party will be required to respect your right to privacy and Crestcare will take reasonable measures to ensure that your personal information is safeguarded. Crestcare will only allow third parties to process your personal information for a specific purpose, in accordance Crestcare’s instructions and applicable law.

9. USE OF COOKIES AND THIRD-PARTY TRACKING

We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to monitor user behaviour and enhance your experience on our website. These cookies may be set by third-party analytics providers, such as Google Analytics and Meta Pixel, which help us understand how visitors engage with our site and improve the effectiveness of our advertising. These tools collect data such as IP addresses, browsing activities, and session times.

You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings or by adjusting your preferences in our cookie consent banner. For more information about the types of cookies we use and how we protect your data, please see our Cookie Policy.

Crestcare will, at all times, process your personal information in accordance with applicable laws (including POPIA) and your rights are set out below:

You have the right to correct your personal information if it is incorrect;
You have the right to update your personal information if your details have changed;
You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information;
You have the right to your personal information being deleted; and
You have the right to be informed if your information has been deleted.

You acknowledge that, in some cases, Crestcare may not be able to comply with your request to delete or destroy your personal information if this request conflicts with applicable law.

10. YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Should you have any disputes that are not addresses through the channels detailed above, then you can contact the Information Officer (Ms Madelein Nel) at info@crestcare.co.za or +27 10 023 5200.

If your query relating to your personal information is not, in your opinion, adequately dealt with, you can contact the Information Regulator at POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za to file an official complaint. For more information, please visit https://inforegulator.org.za/complaints.

11. DISPUTE PROCESS

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in legal requirements or our business practices. Any updates will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. We encourage you to review this policy regularly.

12. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY

If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, you may choose not to use this website, and/or products and services provided by Crestcare and may choose not to submit certain or any personal information.