Privacy Policy

Last updated: 23 July 2026

Who we are

This privacy notice explains how Ashtech Consultancy Services Ltd (“we”, “us”) collects and uses personal data on nationalhealthservice.uk (the “site”).

We are an independent website and are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or part of the UK National Health Service. We do not provide NHS services, and nothing on this site is NHS guidance. For official NHS information, visit nhs.uk.

For data protection purposes, the data controller is Ashtech Consultancy Services Ltd, Oldham, Greater Manchester, UK. You can contact us about anything in this notice at privacy@ashtech.uk.

What we collect, and why

Email subscriptions

When you submit one of our subscription or opt-in forms we collect your email address, together with the date and time of submission and the IP address the submission came from. We use this to send you the content you signed up for.

Lawful basis: your consent (UK GDPR Article 6(1)(a)). You can withdraw it at any time using the unsubscribe link in any email, or by contacting us. Withdrawing consent does not affect anything we sent before you withdrew it.

Contact form

If you use our contact form we collect your name, email address, subject line and message, plus submission time and IP address, so that we can reply to you.

Lawful basis: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) in responding to enquiries.

Comments

When you leave a comment we collect the name, email address and any website address you enter in the comment form, the comment itself, and your IP address and browser user agent string. The IP address and user agent help us detect spam.

Your name, comment and — if you use the Gravatar service — your profile picture are publicly visible to other visitors. Your email address is not published. An anonymised hash of your email address may be sent to Gravatar (operated by Automattic Inc.) to check whether you have a profile picture; see the Automattic privacy policy.

Lawful basis: your consent, given by submitting the comment.

Browser push notifications

If you allow push notifications when your browser asks, a push subscription token identifying your browser or device is registered with Gravitec.net, the third-party service we use to send them. We use this only to send you site notifications. You can revoke permission at any time in your browser settings, which stops the notifications immediately.

Lawful basis: your consent, given via the browser permission prompt.

Server logs and media

Our hosting provider keeps standard access logs including IP addresses, for security and troubleshooting. If you upload images to the site, please avoid images containing embedded location data (EXIF GPS), as other visitors can download and extract it.

Health information — an important note

Content on this site is general information only and is not medical advice. It is not a substitute for consultation with a qualified healthcare professional, and you should not rely on it to diagnose or treat any condition. Always speak to your GP, pharmacist or another qualified clinician about your own health. In an emergency call 999, or NHS 111 for urgent non-emergency advice.

We do not ask for, and ask that you do not send us, information about your own health or medical history. Our forms are not designed to hold special category health data, and we cannot provide individual medical guidance.

Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal data or share it for anyone else’s marketing. We share it only with service providers who process it on our behalf:

Your subscriber records and form submissions are stored in our own WordPress database on our hosting, not with a third-party marketing platform.

Some of these providers are outside the UK. Where personal data is transferred internationally, we rely on UK adequacy regulations or the International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

How long we keep it

Cookies

If you leave a comment you may opt in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies, so you do not have to re-enter them next time. These last one year. If you have an account and log in, we set cookies to store your login state and screen preferences; login cookies last two days and screen option cookies one year, or two weeks if you select “Remember Me”. Logging out removes them.

We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, and we do not run Google Analytics or advertising pixels on this site.

Embedded content from other sites

Articles may include embedded content such as videos. Embedded content from another website behaves exactly as if you had visited that website: it may collect data about you, use cookies, and monitor your interaction with it, including tracking you if you have an account and are logged in there.

Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to: access a copy of your personal data; have inaccurate data corrected; have your data erased; restrict or object to how we process it; receive your data in a portable format; and withdraw consent at any time.

To exercise any of these, email privacy@ashtech.uk. We will respond within one month.

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or on 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to address your concern first.

Changes to this notice

If we change how we handle personal data we will update this page and revise the date at the top. Where the change is significant we will tell subscribers by email.