GDPR

How we Keep Your Records Confidential

Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential. We have a duty to;

Maintain full and accurate records of the care we provide to you

  • Keep records about you confidential and secure.
  • Provide information in a format that is accessible to you (e.g. large type if you are partially sighted).

We will not share information that identifies you for any reason unless:

  • You ask us to do so.
  • We ask and you give us specific permission.
  • We have to do this by law.
  • We have special permission for health or research purposes, or
  • We have special permission because the interests of the public are thought to be of greater importance than your confidentiality—for example, if you had a serious medical condition that may put others you had come into contact with at risk.

We Hold Your Records in Strict Confidence

Who are our partner organisations?

We may share information with the following main partner organisations:

  • Strategic Health Authorities (SHA’s).
  • NHS Trusts (Hospital’s, PCT’s).
  • Special Health Authorities.
  • Ambulance Service.

We may also share your information, with your consent and subject to strict sharing protocols on how it will be used, with:

  • Social Services
  • Education Services
  • Local Authorities
  • Voluntary Sector Providers
  • Private Sector

Anyone who receives information from us also has a legal duty to:

Keep it Confidential!

Why we Collect Information About you:

In the National Health Service, we aim to provide you with the highest quality of health care. To do this we must keep records about you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide to you.

These records may include:

  • Basic details about you such as an address, date of birth, next of kin.
  • Contact we have had with you such as clinical visits.
  • Notes and reports about your health.
  • Details and records about your treatment and care.
  • Results of x-rays, laboratory tests, etc.
  • Relevant information from people who care for you and know you well. such as health professionals and relatives.

It is good practice for people in the NHS who provide care to:

  • Discuss and agree with you what they are going to record about you.
  • Give you a copy of letters they are writing about you, and.
  • Show you what they have recorded about you if you ask.

How Your Records Are Used

The people who care for you use your records to:

  • Provide a good basis for all health decisions made in consultation with you and other health care professionals
  • Deliver appropriate health care
  • Make sure your health care is safe and effective, and
  • Work effectively with others providing you with health care

Others may also need to use records about you to:

  • Check the quality of health care (such as clinical audit)
  • Protect the health of the general public
  • Keep track of NHS spending
  • Manage the health service
  • Help investigate any concerns or complaints you or your family have about your health care

Some information will be held centrally to be used for statistical purposes. In these instances, we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified.

We use anonymous information, wherever possible, but on occasions, we may use personally identifiable information for essential NHS purposes such as research and auditing.

However, this information will only be used with your consent, unless the law requires us to pass on the information.

 Notification

The Data Protection Act 1998 & General Data Protection Regulations 2018 require organisations to notify the Information Commissioner of the purposes for which they process personal information.