Terms of Engagement

1.1

Velmont Institute (“we” or “us”) provides private medical services. When you complete a, enrolment or consent form referring to these terms, you enter into an agreement with us on this basis.

1.2

These terms apply alongside our Patient Privacy Notice, any registration or consent form you complete, and — where you join a programme — the programme description current at the time you join.

1.3

We may update these terms. Where a change is material we will tell you directly, and it will not affect care we have already agreed to provide.

2.1

We provide care to adults aged eighteen and over. Where someone younger requires care, we will help them find a service able to provide it.

2.2

We may decline to provide a particular treatment where it is not clinically appropriate, where it would not be safe, or where we are not the right service for what is needed. Where that happens we will explain why and, wherever we can, tell you who is.

3.1

We are not an emergency service. We do not provide accident and emergency treatment, and we do not admit patients overnight.

3.2

If you become unwell at the clinic, our staff will provide first aid and call an ambulance where one is needed. Emergency treatment will be provided by an NHS hospital. In an emergency elsewhere, call 999. For urgent advice when we are closed, contact NHS 111.

3.3

Our opening hours are wide, and deliberately so, but they are hours during which planned care is available. They are not an emergency service.

4.1

We will provide our services with reasonable skill and care. Some of the consultants who treat you work with us as independent practitioners rather than employees; we remain responsible to you for the care they provide here.

4.2

No treatment is without risk, and no outcome can be guaranteed. Your clinician will explain what a treatment involves, what it is likely to achieve, what the alternatives are, and what could go wrong, before you decide.

4.3

Nothing is done without your consent. You may decline any investigation or treatment, at any point, including after you have agreed to it, and doing so will not affect the rest of your care.

4.4

We need accurate information from you — your history, your medications, your allergies, and anything else that bears on your safety. Where information is incomplete, there are things we may not be able to do safely.

4.5

Where we refer you to another provider, you contract with them directly and we are not responsible for their care. We will tell you clearly when that is happening.

5.1

Appointments may be arranged by telephone, by email, or through the website.

5.2

If you need to change or cancel an appointment, please give us at least two days’ notice, so that the time can be offered to someone else. Appointments cancelled with less notice, or missed, may incur a charge.

5.3

Where a longer appointment or a procedure has been scheduled, the charge may be higher, reflecting the clinical time and resources committed. We will tell you what it is before it applies.

5.4

We will waive a charge where the reason was a medical emergency or something genuinely outside your control.

5.5

If we need to change your appointment, we will give you as much notice as we can and arrange an alternative that suits you.

6.1

We will tell you what something costs, or how the cost will be calculated, before we do it. You will be given an estimate in advance, valid for two months from the date it is given.

6.2

Where the picture changes and further investigation or treatment is advisable, we will tell you what it costs before proceeding.

6.3

Fees are inclusive of VAT, where VAT applies.

6.4

Invoices are payable by the date stated. Payment may be made by bank transfer, debit or credit card. Where fees are overdue we may decline to provide further services until the account is settled.

6.5

Your card or bank statement will not identify what you attended for.

7.1

If an insurer or your employer is paying, tell us before your first appointment and give us the policy or scheme details.

7.2

Only your insurer can confirm what your policy covers, and it is worth confirming this yourself rather than assuming. We will liaise with them on your behalf. Where they have not settled within thirty days of the due date, we may ask you to pay instead.

7.3

Where an insurer or employer is paying, they will usually require information about your care. We will explain what is being shared before we share it. You may decline, though they may then decline to pay.

8.1

Where you join an annual programme, the following applies in addition to the above.

8.2

The programme runs for twelve months from the date you join. What it includes is set out in the programme description current at that date.

8.3

Sessions and assessments are made available across the year at the intervals described. Where a session is not taken, it does not carry forward beyond the end of the programme year unless we have agreed otherwise in writing.

8.4

Every investigation and treatment within a programme remains subject to clinical judgement. Inclusion in a programme is not an instruction to perform a study; where your physician judges that something is not due, not appropriate, or not in your interest, it will not be done, and the reason will be explained. This is a clinical safeguard rather than a limitation on what you have paid for.

8.5

Membership is personal to you and may not be transferred.

9.1

Everything you tell a clinician here is confidential, both under data protection law and under the common law duty of confidence. How we handle your information is set out in full in our Patient Privacy Notice.

9.2

We do not write to your general practitioner, your insurer, your employer or your family without your consent.

9.3

In the interests of other patients, please treat as confidential anything you see or hear at the clinic, including the identity of anyone you may encounter.

10.1

Where something goes wrong with your care, we will tell you what happened, apologise, and explain what we are doing about it. This is our duty of candour, and it applies whether or not you have asked.

10.2

Please tell us if you are unhappy about anything. Our Complaints Procedure explains how, and raising a concern will not affect your care.

11.1

We will at all times during the provision of our services, and for a period of no less than six years afterwards, have and maintain both professional indemnity and public liability insurance in accordance with good industry practice.

11.2

We alone will be responsible to you for the provision of our services. To the fullest extent permissible by law, you agree that you will not bring any claim against any individual employee, officer or consultant of ours in connection with this agreement or its subject matter.

11.3

Subject to clause 11.5, we shall not be liable to you in any circumstances for:

11.4

Subject to clauses 11.3 and 11.5, and only to the extent permitted by law and fair and reasonable in the circumstances, our total aggregate liability to you in contract, tort (including negligence), breach of statutory duty or otherwise under or in connection with this agreement or its subject matter shall not exceed a sum equal to the fees paid or payable to us under this agreement for the appointment, procedure or other part of the services in relation to which the event giving rise to liability occurred.

11.5

Nothing in this agreement shall limit or exclude our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, for breach of any rights that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded, or for any other matter in relation to which our liability cannot lawfully be limited or excluded. Your rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 are unaffected.

11.6

While we take all reasonable care, we do not accept responsibility for theft or loss of, or damage to, property brought to the clinic by you or by anyone accompanying you.

12.1

You may end this agreement at any time by telling us. We may end it by giving you two months’ written notice, or immediately where there has been a serious breach.

12.2

Where we end the agreement for our own convenience, we will refund anything you have paid for care not yet provided.

12.3

Ending the agreement does not affect your liability for care already given.

13.1

These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.

13.2

We are not liable for delay or failure caused by something outside our reasonable control, and will tell you as soon as we can if that arises.

13.3

Notices to us may be sent to Velmont Institute, 121 Crawford Street, London W1U 6BE, or to velmontinstitute@gmail.com. Please keep your contact details current.

14.1

By using this website you accept these terms and our Patient Privacy Notice.

15.1

This website describes the services we provide. It is general information, it is not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for consulting a clinician about your own circumstances. Nothing here should be relied on to diagnose, treat or rule out a condition, or to delay seeking care.

15.2

Do not use this website in an emergency. Call 999.

15.3

Using this website, submitting an enquiry, or requesting an appointment does not create a doctor-patient relationship. That begins at consultation.

16.1

We take care to keep this site accurate and current, but we do not warrant that it is complete, accurate or up to date, and clinical practice changes. Where a page carries a review date, that is when it was last checked.

17.1

Please do not send clinical details, symptoms or medical history through the enquiry form or by email. Email is not a secure channel. Give us your name and how to reach you, and we will arrange a conversation on a secure line.

17.2

We are not able to give clinical advice by email.

18.1

The text, images and design of this site belong to us or to our licensors. You may print or download material for your own personal, non-commercial use. Anything beyond that requires our written permission.

18.2

Our name and marks may not be used without our written permission.

19.1

Where we link to another website, we do so because we think it may be useful. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content or their privacy practices.

20.1

We do not guarantee that this site will be available without interruption, and we may change or withdraw any part of it.

20.2

To the extent the law allows, we are not liable for loss arising from your use of this website, or from any inability to use it. This does not affect Part 1, which governs your care.