Terms and Conditions of Service

Last updated: 26 October 2026 · Version 1.4

These Terms and Conditions ('Terms') govern the provision of private medical and surgical foot and ankle care by Mason Foot and Ankle Ltd (company number 11871102) ('the Clinic', 'we', 'us', 'our'), whether services are booked via our website, by telephone, or in person. By booking an appointment, procedure, or service with us, you ('the patient', 'you', 'your') agree to be bound by these Terms.

1. About Us and Regulatory Status

• The Clinic is operated by Mason Foot and Ankle Ltd, a private company registered in England and Wales.
• Care is provided under the direction of Professor Lyndon W. Mason, Consultant Foot and Ankle Surgeon, registered with the General Medical Council (GMC number 6074953) and subject to GMC Good Medical Practice and revalidation requirements.
• Where treatment, outpatient consultation, or diagnostic testing takes place at a hospital (for example Spire Liverpool Hospital), that hospital is separately regulated (by the Care Quality Commission or equivalent regulator) and has its own Patient Terms and Conditions, consent processes, payment arrangements, and complaints procedure, separate from your contract with the Clinic. The hospital's Patient Terms and Conditions are available at the hospital's website or on request, and will apply in addition to these Terms for any element of your care delivered there.
• The Clinic holds professional indemnity/medical defence cover appropriate to the services provided.

2. Scope of Services

We provide private consultation, diagnostic, non-surgical, and surgical services relating to foot and ankle conditions. Services are provided on the basis of clinical judgement and may be amended, added to, or declined at the surgeon's discretion where clinically appropriate. Nothing in these Terms creates a right to a specific treatment, medication, or outcome.

3. Fees and Payment

Indicative fees are set out below and are correct as at the date of this document. Final fees depend on the complexity of your case, the treatment agreed, and whether hospital, anaesthetic, implant, or third-party fees apply.

My fee for an initial consultation will not exceed £250.00, and my fee for any follow-up consultation will not exceed £150.00. These fees are separate from, and in addition to, any hospital facility fee, diagnostic test fee (e.g. X-ray, ultrasound, MRI, CT), or other practitioner's fee. If a diagnostic investigation is recommended, you will be told its cost in advance wherever practicable.

• Card details on file: Whether you are booking online or in person, our billing agent (Medserv) or the treating hospital (Spire Liverpool Hospital) will ask for your credit or debit card details in advance. We do not hold your card details ourselves. This applies even if you have private medical insurance, to cover any shortfall, excess, or uninsured item.
• Timing of payment: Payment is usually taken on the day of your appointment or procedure. Where payment cannot be taken on the day, you will receive an invoice, and if unpaid, your card may be charged automatically after 14 days. You will have at least 7 days from the date of any invoice or notice to query a charge before your card is debited.
• Additional costs: Surgical quotations may exclude hospital facility fees, anaesthetist fees, implant costs, and post-operative physiotherapy, which are charged separately by the relevant provider (e.g. the hospital).
• Insurance patients: Please contact your insurer before your consultation to check the level and type of cover, including any excess, annual limits, or pre-authorisation requirements, and bring your policy/membership number and any authorisation reference to your appointment. It remains your responsibility to confirm cover, and you remain liable for any shortfall, excess, or item not covered by your insurer (including pharmacy items on a private prescription, which are never covered by insurers).
• Insurer recognition: Please check with your insurer before booking whether your consultant is recognised by your policy.
• Card security: Card details are captured and held by Medserv and/or Spire Liverpool Hospital, not by the Clinic, in accordance with industry payment security standards (PCI DSS).
• Late payment: Unpaid invoices may be referred to a third-party collection agency and may accrue statutory interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, where applicable.
• Quality information: Independent information about the quality of private treatment is available from the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN) at www.phin.org.uk.

4. Cancellations, Rescheduling and Non-Attendance

• We require at least 48 hours' notice to cancel or reschedule a consultation, and at least 2 weeks' notice for a surgical procedure, to avoid a cancellation charge.
• Cancellations with insufficient notice, or failure to attend ('DNA'), may incur a charge of up to 50% of the applicable fee, reflecting reserved clinical time.
• Online booking payments are subject to this cancellation policy; refunds (where due) will be processed to the original payment method within a reasonable period.
• We reserve the right to cancel or reschedule appointments (e.g. due to clinical emergency or illness) and will give as much notice as possible.

5. Consent, Second Opinions and Clinical Risk

• All treatment is subject to your informed consent, obtained in line with GMC guidance. You will be given a reasonable opportunity to discuss risks, benefits, and alternatives (including no treatment) before agreeing to proceed.
• You are entitled to seek a second opinion at any stage, and to withdraw consent at any time before treatment begins.
• As with all medical and surgical treatment, outcomes cannot be guaranteed. Providing these Terms and any marketing or educational material (including website or social media content) does not constitute a guarantee of a particular result.
• Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under English law.

6. Conflicts of Interest

In the interests of transparency, Professor Mason discloses that he holds an implant design and consultancy relationship with Ortho Solutions UK Ltd in respect of the Volition® plating system. This disclosure is maintained in line with GMC guidance on conflicts of interest.

7. Data Protection, Confidentiality and Information Governance

Mason Foot and Ankle Ltd determines the purposes for which personal and special category (health) data is processed in connection with your care, in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the Data Protection Act 2018, and the common law duty of confidentiality. The Clinic does not itself hold or store patient records. All clinical information is recorded and held on the Bluespier clinical information system and within Spire Liverpool Hospital's own systems. All financial and billing information is recorded and held by our billing agent, Medserv, and by Spire Liverpool Hospital. Bluespier, Medserv, and Spire Liverpool Hospital process this data on our behalf (or, where applicable, as independent controllers in their own right for their own regulatory purposes), under the data protection and confidentiality obligations that apply to them.

7.1 What is collected and why

• Identity and contact details, medical history, examination findings, imaging, correspondence with other clinicians, and payment/insurance details, collected directly from you, referring clinicians, and (with consent, where required) other treating providers.
• This data is processed for the purposes of providing clinical care, maintaining accurate medical records, billing, safeguarding, clinical audit, and complying with legal and regulatory obligations (including GMC and, where relevant, registry reporting such as the BOFAS National Foot and Ankle Registry).

7.2 Legal basis

• Processing of health data is carried out under Article 9(2)(h) UK GDPR (provision of health care) and Article 6(1)(b)/(f), supplemented by DPA 2018 Schedule 1 conditions, together with the common law duty of confidentiality.

7.3 Where your information is held and who it is shared with

• Clinical records: held on the Bluespier clinical information system and within Spire Liverpool Hospital's systems.
• Financial and billing records: held by Medserv (our billing agent) and by Spire Liverpool Hospital.
• Relevant information is shared with your GP and other treating clinicians for continuity of care, with your insurer (with your authorisation) for billing purposes, and with regulators or registries where we are legally or professionally required to do so.
• We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share identifiable health data for marketing purposes.
• Where data is used in anonymised or pseudonymised form for research, audit, or registry purposes (e.g. outcome studies), it will not identify you individually.

7.4 Retention

• Medical records are retained by Bluespier and Spire Liverpool Hospital in accordance with Department of Health and Social Care / GMC retention guidance (currently a minimum of 8 years for adult records, and until a patient's 25th birthday for records relating to children, or longer where clinically indicated). Financial records are retained by Medserv and Spire Liverpool Hospital in line with their own statutory retention obligations (including HMRC requirements).

7.5 Your rights

• Under UK GDPR you have the right to access, rectify, and (in limited circumstances) erase your data, to restrict or object to processing, and to data portability. Requests should be made in writing to our Data Protection Lead, Professor Lyndon Mason (see Section 12), who will coordinate a response with Bluespier, Medserv, and/or Spire Liverpool Hospital as needed.
• You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk if you believe your data has been handled unlawfully. Mason Foot and Ankle Ltd's ICO registration reference is ZB905832.

7.6 Website, cookies and online enquiries

• Where you submit an enquiry, booking, or payment via our website, this data is processed in line with our separate Website Privacy and Cookie Policy, which set out use of any booking platform, payment processor, and analytics tools in more detail.
• Please do not submit detailed clinical information via general website contact forms or unencrypted email, as these are not guaranteed secure channels for sensitive health data.

8. Confidentiality of Records

As set out in Section 7, your clinical and financial records are not held directly by the Clinic. They are held securely on the Bluespier clinical information system, and by Spire Liverpool Hospital and Medserv, in line with NHS/private sector information governance standards and Caldicott principles. Access is restricted to those directly involved in your care or its administration.

9. Complaints

We aim to provide the highest standard of care. If you are unhappy with any aspect of your treatment or experience:

• Treatment at Spire Liverpool Hospital: Any complaint relating to treatment, care, or services received at Spire Liverpool Hospital will be handled through Spire Healthcare's own complaints procedure, in accordance with the hospital's Patient Terms and Conditions. Please raise such complaints directly with the hospital, and we will cooperate fully with any investigation.
• All other complaints: In the first instance, please raise your concern directly with the Clinic in writing (see Section 12).
• We will acknowledge your complaint within 21 business days and aim to provide a full response within 3 months.
• If you remain dissatisfied, you may refer your complaint to the Independent Sector Complaints Adjudication Service (ISCAS), the General Medical Council (for concerns about a doctor's fitness to practise), or, where treatment took place in a CQC-regulated hospital, to that hospital's own complaints process.

10. Liability

• Save as set out in Section 5, our liability for losses arising from these Terms or the services provided is limited to losses that are a reasonably foreseeable consequence of a breach of these Terms or negligence on our part.
• We are not liable for the acts or omissions of independent third parties, including hospitals, anaesthetists, physiotherapists, or other practitioners not directly employed by the Clinic, save to the extent required by law.
• Nothing in these Terms affects your statutory rights as a consumer under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

11. General

• Governing law: These Terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction, save where you are resident elsewhere in the UK and mandatory local consumer protections apply.
• Changes to these Terms: We may update these Terms from time to time; the version in force at the time of your treatment will apply. The current version is always available on our website.
• Severability: If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in full force.
• Third parties: These Terms do not confer any rights on third parties under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

12. Contact Details

Data Protection Lead: Professor Lyndon Mason

Address: Spire Liverpool Hospital, 57 Greenbank Road, Liverpool L18 1HQ

Email: cvdwclerical@outlook.com

Telephone: 07717 580737

ICO registration number: ZB905832