Our Patient Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice explains what information we collect about our patients, clients and service users, as well as how we store this information, how long we retain it and with whom and for which legal purpose we may share it.
Click here to read a PDF of our Patient Privacy Notice
Read the Notice
Who we are?
St Clare Hospice is a local charity and each year we care for hundreds of people across West Essex and the East Hertfordshire border. We provide free, compassionate care and support to adults with life-limiting illnesses, their families and carers. St Clare West Essex Hospice Care Trust (known as St Clare Hospice) as a charitable company is registered in England and Wales No. 3398955. Charity registration No. 1063631.
St Clare Hospice 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 please refer to the ‘About Us’ page on our website.
Why we collect personal information about you?
The staff caring for you needs to collect and maintain information about your health, treatment and care, so that you can be given the best possible care. This personal information can be held in a variety of formats, including paper records, electronically on computer systems, in video and audio files.
What is our legal basis for processing personal information about you?
Any personal information we hold about you is processed for the purposes of ‘provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health of social care systems and services under chapter 2, section 9 of the Data Protection Act 2018.
For further information on this legislation please visit: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/
What personal information do we need to collect about you and how do we obtain it?
Personal information about you is collected in a number of ways. This can be from referral details from your GP or another hospital, directly from you or your authorised representative.
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 and your GP details, 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.
You are not obligated to provide your personal information to St Clare Hospice, however, as this information is required for us to provide you with our services we will not be able to offer our services without it.
What do we do with your personal information?
Your records are used to directly, manage and deliver healthcare to you to ensure that:
• The staff involved in your care have accurate and up to date information to assess and advise 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 social care or health provider.
What we may do with your personal information…
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 our 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.
Who do we share your information with and why?
St Clare Hospice takes your privacy seriously and we take every reasonable measure and precaution to protect and secure your personal data. We work hard to protect you and your information from unauthorised access, alteration, disclosure or destruction and have several layers of security measures in place.
We may need to share relevant personal information with other health care organisations. We are part of My Care Record, an approach to improving care by joining up health and care information. Health and care professionals from other services will be able to securely view information from the records we hold about you when it is needed for your care. Please see mycarerecord.org.uk for more information.
We may share your information for healthcare purposes with health authorities such as NHS England, Public Health England, NHS trusts, general practitioners (GPs), ambulance services, primary care agencies, etc. We will also share information with parts of the NHS and those contracted to provide services to the NHS in order to support your healthcare needs.
We may also share information from your health records with other non-NHS organisations from which you are also receiving care, such as Social Services, other hospices or private care homes.
There are occasions where St Clare Hospice is required by law to share information provided to us. 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.
Personal information you provide to St Clare Hospice in confidence will only be used for the purposes explained to you. 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, we will always do its best to notify you of this sharing.
How we maintain your records
Your personal information is held in both paper and electronic forms for specified periods of time as set out in the NHS Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care and National Archives Requirements.
We hold and process your information in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, as explained above. In addition, everyone working for St Clare Hospice 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 at St Clare Hospice provide the option to communicate with patients via email. Please be aware that we cannot guarantee the security of this information whilst in transit, and by requesting this service you are accepting this risk.
What are your rights?
If we need to use your personal information for any reasons beyond those stated above, we will discuss this with you and ask for your explicit consent. The Data Protection Act 2018 gives you certain rights, including the right to:
• Request access to the personal data we hold about you, e.g. in health records.
• Request the correction of inaccurate or incomplete information recorded in our health records, subject to certain safeguards.
• 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.
• 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 sharing would be for a purpose beyond your care and treatment (e.g. as part of a local/regional data sharing initiative). This is called ‘National Data Opt-Out’ and information is provided below for your reference.
https://digital.nhs.uk/national-data-opt-out
• We will always try to keep your information confidential and only share information when absolutely necessary.
If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact our Data Protection Officer who will investigate the matter.
Data Protection Officer
Please contact:
Data Protection Officer St Clare Hospice Hastingwood
Essex CM17 9JX
Or via telephone 01279 773750 or email to dpo@stclarehospice.org.uk
Information Commissioner’s Office
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the body that regulates St Clare Hospice under Data Protection legislation. https://ico.org.uk/. If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the. ICO at:
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
National Data Opt-Out
Patient information is collected as part of routine health and care provision. This information can also be used for other reasons, including to improve quality and standards of care, research into new treatments and planning services (where a legal basis applies). The majority of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that patients cannot be identified, in which case confidential information is not required.
You do have a choice if you would like your confidential information used for research and planning purposes – if you are happy with the use of your information you do not need to do anything, however if you choose to ‘opt out’, your confidential patient information will still be used to support your care. Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes as data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.
The national data opt-out also does not apply where:
• data is shared for an individual’s care
• there is a risk to public health or data is required for monitoring and control of infectious diseases, for example during an epidemic
• there is an overriding public interest, for example: reporting of gun wounds in line with GMC guidance
• there is a legal requirement to share information, for example: investigations by regulators of professionals (e.g. General Medical Council investigating a registered doctor’s fitness to practice);NHS fraud investigations; notification of food poisoning
• consent obtained to take part in a specific project
• anonymised data is used
To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters