Consent to Online Care and Clinical Records

In short

• Your sessions are online, with qualified clinicians, by video, audio or text chat.
• SehatYab keeps a confidential clinical record of your care. Clinicians are not permitted to keep their own copies.
• Only people involved in your care can see your record. Customer support sees bookings and payments only.
• We share information outside SehatYab only with your permission, or where safety or the law requires it.
• Sessions are not recorded. You can stop, refuse any treatment, or ask for your record at any time.
• SehatYab is not an emergency service.

1. About this consent

SehatYab is an online clinic operated by Huda Healthcare (Private) Limited ("SehatYab", "we"), registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the Punjab Healthcare Commission. This page explains how online care at SehatYab works and how we keep your clinical record.

It applies to every SehatYab service you use, including consultations, therapy and counselling, emotional support sessions, psychological assessments, psychiatric consultations, and couples and family sessions, for as long as you receive care from us. Please read it with our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

2. Online care: benefits and limits

Online care lets you see a qualified clinician from wherever you are. It also has limits:

• Your clinician cannot examine you physically, and some conditions need in-person care.
• Internet or technical problems can interrupt a session. If this happens, the clinician or our team will try to reconnect or reschedule.
• Text chat and messages are easier to misunderstand than speaking.

If your clinician thinks online care is not suitable or safe for you, they will tell you and recommend other options, such as in-person care at a hospital or clinic. You can also choose in-person care elsewhere at any time. No clinician can guarantee a particular result.

3. Your clinician

Psychiatrists at SehatYab are licensed by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council. Psychologists and other clinicians have their qualifications verified before they join. Your clinician's name and qualifications are shown on their profile, and you can ask us for their registration details at any time.

Your clinician works under SehatYab's clinical policies and clinical oversight. If your clinician becomes unavailable or leaves SehatYab, we will offer you another SehatYab clinician, where one is available, so your care can continue.

4. During your sessions

• We may ask you to confirm your identity before or during a session.
• Please join from a quiet, private place where you cannot be overheard. If anyone else is with you, tell your clinician.
• At the start of a session, your clinician may ask where you are, so that help can reach you in an emergency. We may also ask for an emergency contact.
• SehatYab does not record sessions, and clinicians are not permitted to. Please do not record sessions without your clinician's agreement. If we ever want to record a session, or use any tool that records or transcribes it, we will ask for your separate permission first, and you can say no.
• Messages sent outside your session are not monitored around the clock. Do not use them for urgent matters.

5. Emergencies and safety

SehatYab is not an emergency service. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 1122 or go to the nearest hospital emergency department.

If, during your care, your clinician believes there is a serious and immediate risk to your life or safety, or to someone else's, they may contact your emergency contact, your family or emergency services, and share the information needed to keep you or others safe, including your location.

If your clinician believes that, at that moment, you are not able to make decisions about your care, they may pause the session and take the steps the law allows to keep you safe, which may include involving your family or emergency services.

6. Your clinical record

We keep a record of your care. It may include session notes, assessments and their results, diagnoses, treatment plans, prescriptions, reports, referrals, and important messages exchanged through SehatYab's official channels.

This record is needed for your safe care, for continuity if another clinician needs to help you, for quality checks and complaints, and to meet legal and regulatory requirements. Keeping a record is a necessary part of receiving care through SehatYab, so we cannot provide care without it.

Your record is kept by SehatYab in its secure electronic health record (EHR) system, not by individual clinicians. Clinicians are not permitted to keep their own copies. If your clinician leaves SehatYab, your record stays with SehatYab and remains protected in the same way.

7. Assessments, medicines and other treatments

Before a psychological assessment, a medicine, or a structured treatment programme, your clinician will explain its purpose, what it involves, its likely benefits, risks and side effects, and the alternatives, and will note your agreement in your record. Assessment results and reports form part of your clinical record.

At SehatYab, only psychiatrists prescribe medicines, and only where it is safe and lawful to do so online. Some medicines cannot be prescribed online.

8. Who can see your record

• Your treating clinician.
• Other SehatYab clinicians involved in your care, for example after a referral or if your clinician is unavailable.
• Authorised members of SehatYab's clinical team, only for quality checks and complaints, and only as much as is needed.
• Customer support staff see administrative details only, such as bookings and payments. They do not have access to your assessments, session notes, prescriptions or any other clinical record.
• Companies that host or support our systems, only to provide that service and on terms that require them to keep it confidential.
• A regulator or court, where the law requires it.

All SehatYab clinicians and staff are bound by confidentiality.

9. Confidentiality and its limits

We do not share your information outside SehatYab without your permission, except where necessary:

• to protect you or someone else from a serious risk to life or safety;
• to protect a child or a vulnerable person from harm;
• in a medical emergency;
• where the law, a court, or a regulator such as the Punjab Healthcare Commission requires it; or
• to respond to a complaint, regulatory inquiry or legal claim about your care.

In each case, only the information needed is shared, and where it is safe and lawful, we will tell you before we share it. Apart from the cases above, reports or letters for anyone else, such as an employer, school, insurer or lawyer, are sent only with your written permission for that request.

10. Couples, family and group sessions

In couples, family or group sessions, what is said is heard by everyone present. Your clinician will explain at the start how anything shared with them privately will be handled. Records of joint sessions are released only with the agreement of every participant, unless the law requires otherwise.

11. How we communicate

SehatYab and its clinicians contact you only through SehatYab's official WhatsApp, phone, email and client portal. Clinicians do not share personal phone numbers, email addresses or social media accounts. If a clinician contacts you outside these channels, or offers you sessions outside SehatYab, please tell us at customerservices@sehatyab.com.

WhatsApp, email and phone networks are run by other companies and are not completely secure. Tell us if you prefer a particular channel, or do not want messages sent to a shared phone or email.

12. Patients under 18

• For patients under 18, a parent or legal guardian must give consent. We may ask for proof of guardianship.
• We also explain the care to the young person in a way they understand, and ask for their agreement.
• To build trust, the clinician keeps the details of sessions private, but will tell the parent or guardian what they need to know for the young person's safety and care.
• Once the patient turns 18, their own consent is needed to continue care.

13. Your rights

• Ask questions about your care or your record at any time.
• Refuse or stop any assessment, treatment or session, and ask for a second opinion.
• Ask to see, or get a copy of, your clinical record. We aim to provide it within 30 days. A clinician may hold back a specific part only if releasing it would likely cause serious harm to you or someone else, or would reveal information about another person. We will tell you if this happens.
• Ask us to correct information that is wrong. Clinical entries are not deleted, but we will correct errors and can add your comments.
• Withdraw this consent at any time by telling us. Your care will then stop, but records already made are kept for the periods in section 14, because the law and safe practice require it.
• Complain to us at feedback@sehatyab.com. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Punjab Healthcare Commission.

14. How long we keep records

We keep records for as long as they are needed for your care and to meet legal and regulatory requirements. This is normally:

• Adults: at least 10 years after your last session.
• Patients under 18: at least until the patient's 25th birthday, or 10 years after the last session, whichever is later.
• Records connected to a complaint or legal matter: until the matter is closed, and at least 12 years.
• Consent records: for as long as the clinical record they relate to.

After that, we may securely delete records or remove the details that identify you.

15. Other uses of your information

• We never sell your information.
• We do not use your clinical information for advertising.
• We use your story, review or testimonial publicly only with your separate permission.
• We may use information for research, training or improving our services only after removing details that identify you, or with your separate permission.
• Saying no to any of these never affects your care.

16. Changes to this consent

Each version of this page has a version number and an effective date, and every version is kept on record. If we make a change that affects your rights or how your record is used, we will ask you to accept the new version before your next session. Small changes, such as updated contact details or clearer wording, take effect when published. You can ask us for any earlier version.

17. Language

This page is available in English and Urdu, and both say the same thing. If anything is unclear, ask us or your clinician before your session. If there is any difference between the two versions, the English version applies.

18. Your consent

You give consent by ticking the consent box when you book, by submitting our consent form, or by confirming it in writing to SehatYab's official WhatsApp. Your electronic consent is recorded with the date, time and version, and has the same effect as a signature.

By giving consent, you confirm that:

• you have read and understood this information, and have had the chance to ask questions;
• you are 18 or over, or you are the parent or legal guardian of the patient;
• the information you give us is true; and
• you freely agree to receive online care from SehatYab, and to your clinical record being kept and used as described above.

If you book for another adult, they must give their own consent before their first session. Your consent continues for all your sessions until you withdraw it or accept a newer version.