How we use your information

Our Practice is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to process personal and special categories of information under the Data Protection Act 2018

For further information on this legislation please visit:   http://www.legislation.gov.uk/

We will likely hold the following basic personal information about you: your name, address (including correspondence), telephone numbers, date of birth, next of kin contacts, etc. We might also hold your email address, marital status, occupation, overseas status, place of birth and preferred name or maiden name.

In addition to the above, we may hold sensitive personal information about you which could include:

• Notes and reports about your health, treatment and care, including
• Your medical conditions
• Results of investigations, such as x-rays and laboratory tests
• Future care you may need
• Personal information from people who care for and know you, such as relatives and health or social care professionals
• Other personal information such as smoking status and any learning disabilities
• Your religion and ethnic origin
• Whether or not you are subject to any protection orders regarding your health, wellbeing and human rights (safeguarding status).

It is important for us to have a complete picture of you as this will assist staff to deliver appropriate treatment and care plans in accordance with your needs.

• The staff involved in your care have accurate and up to date information to assess and advice on the most appropriate care for you.
• Staff have the information they need to be able to assess and improve the quality and type of care you receive.
• Appropriate information is available if you see another healthcare professional, or are referred to a specialist or another part of the NHS, social care or health provider.

The personal information we collect about you may also be used to:

• Remind you about your appointments and send you relevant correspondence.
• review the care we provide to ensure it is of the highest standard and quality, e.g. through audit or service improvement;
• support the funding of your care, e.g. with commissioning organisations;
• prepare statistics on NHS performance to meet the needs of the population or for the Department of Health and other regulatory bodies;
• help to train and educate healthcare professionals;
• report and investigate complaints, claims and untoward incidents;
• report events to the appropriate authorities when we are required to do so by law;
• review your suitability for research study or clinical trial
• contact you with regards to patient satisfaction surveys relating to services you have used within our hospital so as to further improve our services to patients

Where possible, we will always look to anonymise/pseudonymise your personal information so as to protect patient confidentiality, unless there is a legal basis that permits us to use it and we will only use/ share the minimum information necessary.

We may need to share information from your health records with other non-NHS organisations from which you are also receiving care, such as Social Services or private care homes. However, we will not disclose any health information to third parties without your explicit consent unless there are circumstances, such as when the health or safety of others is at risk or where current legislation permits or requires it.

There are occasions where the Practice is required by law to share information provided to us with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, in order to prevent and detect fraud.

There may also be situations where we are under a duty to share your information, due to a legal requirement. This includes, but is not limited to, disclosure under a court order, sharing with the Care Quality Commission for inspection purposes, the police for the prevention or detection of crime or where there is an overriding public interest to prevent abuse or serious harm to others and other public bodies (e.g. HMRC for the misuse of public funds in order to prevent and detect fraud).

For any request to transfer your data internationally outside the UK/EU, we will make sure that an adequate level of protection is satisfied before the transfer.

The Practice is required to protect your personal information, inform you of how your personal information will be used, and allow you to decide if and how your personal information can be shared. Personal information you provide to the Practice in confidence will only be used for the purposes explained to you and to which you have consented. Unless, there are exceptional circumstances, such as when the health or safety of others is at risk, where the law requires it or there is an overriding public interest to do so. Where there is cause to do this, the Practice will always do its best to notify you of this sharing.

We hold and process your information in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 as amended by the GDPR 2016, as explained above.  In addition, everyone working for the NHS must comply with the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality and various national and professional standards and requirements.

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.

Use of Email – Some services in the Practice provide the option to communicate with patients via email. Please be aware that the Practice cannot guarantee the security of this information whilst in transit, and by requesting this service you are accepting this risk.

Further information can be found in our Data Security and Protection policy/Information Governance policy, available at:

Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care 2016

We will keep a copy of your information in our Practice for as long as you are registered with our Practice and If you leave the practice, we will ensure that a copy of anything we hold is passed on to your new GP.  Your record status will be marked as ‘inactive’ in our clinical system, but it will not be deleted”.

Confidential information is securely destroyed in accordance with this code of practice.

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you, e.g. in health records. The way in which you can access your own health records is further explained in our Access to Health Record Policy and Disclosure of Personal Data Procedure
• Request the correction of inaccurate or incomplete information recorded in our health records, subject to certain safeguards. This is also explained in our “Access to Health Record Policy and Disclosure of Personal Data Procedure”.
• Object to the use of your personal information: In certain circumstances you may also have the right to ‘object’ to the processing (i.e. sharing) of your information. Where the Practice processes personal data about you on the basis of being required to do so for the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority, you have a right to object to the processing. You must have an objection on grounds relating to your particular situation. If you raise an objection, we will no longer process the personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims
• Refuse/withdraw consent to the sharing of your health records: Under the Data Protection Act 2018, we are authorised to process, i.e. share, your health records ‘for the management of healthcare systems and services’. Your consent will only be required if we intend to share your health records beyond these purposes, as explained above (e.g. research).         Any consent form you will be asked to sign will give you the option to ‘refuse’ consent and will explain how you can ‘withdraw’ any given consent at a later time. The consent form will also warn you about the possible consequences of such refusal/withdrawal.
• Request your personal information to be transferred to other providers on certain occasions.

All these uses help to provide better health care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential personal information about your health and care is only used in this way where allowed by law and would never be used for insurance or marketing purposes without your explicit consent.

Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed.

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to Type 1 Opt-out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.

You can find out more about the wider use of confidential personal information and to register your choice to opt out by visiting https://www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters/.

If you have registered a National Data Type 1 Opt-out, NHS Digital won’t share any confidential patient information about you with other organisations unless there is an exemption to this, such as where there is a legal requirement or where it is in the public interest to do so, such as helping to manage contagious diseases like coronavirus. You can find out more about exemptions on the NHS website.

If you wish to register a Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice before data sharing starts with NHS Digital, this should be done by returning this form to your GP practice as soon as possible to allow time for processing it. If you have previously registered a Type 1 Opt-out and you would like to withdraw this, you can also use the form to do this. You can send the form by post or email to your GP practice or call 0300 3035678 for a form to be sent out to you.

Information Governance Team

St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Alexandra Business Park

Court Building

Prescot Road

St Helens

WA10 3TP

Or via IG@sthk.nhs.uk

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 if you prefer to use a national rate number

Fax: 01625 524 510

Email: casework@ico.org.uk