Privacy Notice

Data Controller:

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Liverpool Road
Chester
CH2 1UL

01244 365 000

ICO Registration: Z6903413

Data Protection Officer:

Claire Raggett

Coch.dpo@nhs.net

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (CoCH) is committed to handling your information securely and in line with Data Protection, Code of Confidentiality and the Caldicott Principles specifically developed to protect patients of the NHS across the UK.

The Trust uses personal and confidential information for a number of purposes as detailed below.   To ensure that we process your personal data fairly and lawfully we are required to inform you:

• Why we need your data;
• How it will be used: and,
• Who it will be shared with.

We will also explain what rights, as a service user and a colleague, you have and how you can control how we use your information.

The Trust recognises the importance of protecting personal and confidential information in all that we do, and takes care to meet its legal duties.

FAQ's

1. What kind of information does the NHS collect about me?
2. Why do they collect information about me?
3. Who sees my information?
4. How are my medical records kept secure?
5. What are my rights as a data subject?
6. How do i access my information?
7. Can i have access to records about other people?
8. Will I see all of the information in my records?
9. What if the information in my records is incorrect?
10. What if i'm not happy?

The Countess of Chester Hospital requires the below information to be able to provide our patients with an informed service to help deliver healthcare services:

• Details held in the patient’s record;
• Patient images for example photograph, x-rays, scans;
• Personal details such as names, address and telephone numbers;
• Family details for example next of kin details;
• Education and training information;
• Employment details;
• Financial details, where we provide or receive payment for services;
• Visual images, personal appearance and behaviour, e.g. CCTV images are used as part of the building security;
• Responses to surveys, where individuals have responded to surveys about healthcare issues.
• Call recordings

We also process information relating to our staff members to aid staff support, development and standard HR processes:

• Education and training information;
• Employment details;
• Financial details, where we provide or receive payment for services.

As part of the Data Protection Legislation there are certain categories of data, classed as sensitive, which we may process for both healthcare and staff management, that could include:

• Racial and ethical origin;
• Offences (including alleged offences), criminal proceedings, outcomes and sentences;
• Trade union membership;
• Religious or similar beliefs;
• Employment tribunal applications, complaints, accidents and incident details;
• Physical or mental health details;
• Sexual orientation.

We have no right to ask you about information which is not relevant to your care.

To help you

Your Doctor or other health professionals caring for you, keep records about your health and any treatment or care you receive during your visit to the Countess of Chester Hospital. This information is either written down or held on a computer.  These records are then used to guide and manage the care you receive.  This is to make sure that:

• any health professional involved in your care has accurate and up-to-date information to assess your health and decide what care you need;
• there is a good basis for assessing the type and quality of care you have received.  This will lead to better care both for you and for other patients in the future;
• if you need to complain about the care you receive, your concerns or complaints can be properly investigated.

You may receive care from organisations that are not part of the Countess of Chester Hospital Trust, such as Social Services or private and voluntary healthcare providers.  If so, there may be a need to share some information about you so that everyone involved in your care can work together for your benefit.

Information about you will only be used or passed onto others involved with your care, if they need it and you will be fully informed prior to the sharing, generally with a request for consent too.

To help the NHS

Information is also used to help support the future development of the NHS, ensuring the services provided to our patients and staff is always improving.  Some areas where we may process partly/fully anonymised data include:

• analysis of statistical data to review NHS performance and key performance indicators;
• to aid the completion of audits across our NHS services;
• to review and monitor how we spend public money;
• to help plan and develop strategic direction for the future delivery of our NHS service;
• to teach and train healthcare professionals;
• to conduct health research and development.

The information you provide will be recorded in paper file and on a computer. Access to these records is strictly controlled and fully auditable. 

We are required by law to report certain information to the appropriate authorities. This is only provided after permission has been given by a qualified health professional. Occasions when we must pass on information include:

• A notification of new birth;
• Where we encounter infectious diseases which may endanger the safety of others, such as meningitis or measles;
• Where a formal court order has been issued;
• Solicitors or Insurers might ask for records or a medical report, your signed consent is needed in this case.

You may be receiving care from other people as well as the NHS:

• Social Services
• Education Services
• Local Authorities

We may need to share some information about you so we can all work together for your benefit. We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it.

As a health care provider, the Countess of Chester are required to use and share your information for your best interests and may share with external providers if deemed necessary without prior consent, this is for direct care purposes only.  We may also share information with external parties for other matters for example, crime and taxation purposes. 

Cheshire Care Record – providing clinicians with a overview of your health and social care information in one digital record.  Further information can be found here: https://www.cheshirecarerecord.co.uk/

External Systems and third party providers – there are areas of work where we use externally provided systems (such as our clinical system) to manage your information for service delivery, monitoring and improvement.  We ensure that appropriate controls are in place to mitigate risk and ensure compliance with our requirements. 

From 1 April 2018, The Countess of Chester Hospital operates and manages Vascular services across Wirral, West Cheshire and Warrington. This is the result of a joint decision made by the executive teams from the Countess, Warrington & Halton Trust and Wirral University Teaching Hospital at a South Mersey Arterial Network Steering Board meeting.

Prior to 1 April 2018, in-patient vascular and endovascular services had already been centralised at the Countess in 2013, with Wirral and Warrington continuing to provide services at their own sites. The only change to this new model is that staff working within vascular at Wirral and Warrington are now Countess employees.

Individual information will be shared between your local Trust and the Countess of Chester Hospital; to allow the clinical teams to provide the best possible care that you may require. This will have no impact on patient care or where services are delivered. Patients will continue to receive high standards of care at their local hospital. The updated model is about unifying the approach to vascular services across South Mersey and ensuring high quality and consistent care across the region.

National Data Opt-Out Programme

The Trust is one of many organisations working in the health and care system to improve care for patients and the public. The information collected about you when you are using NHS services can be provided to other approved organisations, where there is a legal basis, to help with planning services, improving care provided, research into developing new treatments and preventing illness.

All of these 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.

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. You can find out more about the wider use of confidential personal information and to register your choice to opt out by visiting www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters

External Systems and third party providers 

There are areas of work where we use externally provided systems (such as our clinical system) to manage your information for service delivery, monitoring and improvement. We ensure that appropriate controls are in place to mitigate risk and ensure compliance with our requirements. Please note that if you provide us with your mobile number then we may use this to send you a reminder about your appointment, test results and to ask you for feedback. Please let us know if you do not wish to receive these on your mobile.

Your information is never collected or sold for direct marketing purposes. Your information is not processed overseas unless we have explicit consent from you.

Patient Portal

We are utilising a patient portal to expedite your communications with the Trust. Through this portal, we can now send all you’re appointment details directly to your mobile phone or email address, reducing postage and printing costs for the Trust. For more information, please visit www.drdoctor.co.uk/for-patients.

If you prefer not to use this service, please inform us by calling the Trust at 01244 366663 or speak to the receptionist at your next appointment, and we will continue to send your information by post. If you view or manage your hospital appointments via the NHS App, the Countess of Chester shares your data with NHS England who operate the NHS App and provide this functionality, known as NHS Wayfinder services.  For more information, see the NHS Wayfinder services privacy policy.

Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential and secure under Data Protection Legislation, Caldicott Principles and Confidentiality Code of Conduct.  We use the minimum necessary information about you to be able to provide you with the care and services required.  Anyone who receives information from us, as part of a sharing initiative or continuity of care, is also bound by the same legal duties as our staff and have the same confidentiality clauses within their contracts.  Breaking those rules can result in investigations, disciplinary and even dismissal from employment.

What are my rights as a data subject?

Data protection law gives you certain rights in respect of the personal data that we hold about you including:
• To be informed why, where and how we use your data
• To ask for data to be updated if inaccurate or incomplete
• To ask us to restrict the use of your data
• To object to how your data is used; and
• The right to access

Click here for Further Information

As an individual, you have the right to access any information held by organisations about you, whether this is health or employment information.  You can download this form and sent to:

Legal Service
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Liverpool Road
Chester
CH2 1UL

Email: cochlegalservices@nhs.net

Tel: 01244 365 000 asking for Legal Services

You can only have access to records relating to other people if:

• They have provided written authorisation;
• You have parental responsibility for children under 16;
  • You have been appointed by a court and this is authorised in writing;
  • You are a representative of a deceased patient.

A healthcare professional is required to examine your records before they are released to you and if they believe that certain information in the health record might cause serious harm to your physical or mental health or to that of another person they may withhold that piece of information.

If after you have seen your medical records you think something is incorrect, you should discuss it with the person in charge of your care.  If the incorrect information is non-clinical, such as a wrongly recorded name or address, this will be corrected.

If the information you think is incorrect is a health professional’s opinion, the information will not be amended but a comment may be added alongside the information to say that you disagree.

Usually, clinical information can’t be removed from your records unless a court orders it. This is because clinical staff need your full record to fully understand earlier decisions that were made about your care and treatment.

To make a request to amend / rectify your records please send details to:  coch.amendrecordrequests@nhs.net  

The Team will endeavour to respond at their earliest convenience.

In the first instance, you should contact the Patient Advice and Liaison Service. You can phone the PALS manager, on 01244 366066 or email cochpals@nhs.net.

The Ambulance Data Set (ADS) 

The Ambulance Data Set has been developed by clinicians and will provide an improved, consistent level of detail about how ambulance services respond to and treat the thousands of calls that are received by the 999 service every day.

The way we use patient data is changing.

We aim to provide the highest quality care. To do this, we routinely collect information about you and the care you receive from us.

Like other hospitals across England, we are changing how we share and use this data.

When an ambulance brings you to our Emergency Department (A&E), the information we collect, including your NHS number, date of birth, and time of arrival to the hospital, will now be securely matched with the same patient information collected by the ambulance trust.

Following your episode of care, the ambulance trust will then receive details on your outcome. This information will help them understand the patient journey and further improve the care they provide in the future.

This change will have no impact on the care we provide.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides any person with the right to obtain information held by the Trust, subject to a number of exemptions. If you would like to request some information from us, please send your request to foi.enquiries@nhs.net. Personal and confidential information is often exempt.

TheInformation Governance (IG) Team identify and manage how we look after your information.  They ensure necessary safeguards for, and appropriate use of, patient and other personal information to ensure that we handle it carefully and confidentially.  If you want to discuss the processing of your information with the team, you can contact them:

Post:

Information Governance
Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Countess of Chester Health Park
Liverpool Road
Chester
CH2 1UL

Email: coch.igenquiries@nhs.net

Phone: 01244 362 113

Please click here to see how we process the information of our members