Who We Share Personal Information With

Everyone working within the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential. Similarly, anyone who receives information from us has a legal duty to keep it confidential.

We will share information with the following main partner organisations:

• Other NHS trusts and hospitals that are involved in your care
• Integrated Care Board (ICB) and other NHS bodies (see below)
• General practitioners (GPs)
• Ambulance services

You may be receiving care from other people as well as the NHS, for example Social Care Services. We may need to share some information about you with them so we can all work together for your benefit if they have a genuine need for it or we have your permission. Therefore, we may also share your information, subject to strict agreement about how it will be used, with:

• Social care services
• Education services
• Local authorities
• Voluntary and private sector providers working with the NHS

We will not disclose your information to any other third parties unless: 

We have your permission

• We have to share by law
• We have good reason to believe that failing to share the information will put you or someone else at risk of serious harm or abuse
• We hold information that is essential to prevent, detect, investigate or punish a serious crime

Please ask our staff if you have any concerns or would like further information. Alternatively you can contact the Information Governance Team, Mary Seacole Building, Willerby Hill, Willerby, HU10 6ED, Tel: 01482 477854 or email: HNF-TR.IGTeam@nhs.net.

National Record Locator Service

The Trust is part of the NHS Digital National Records Locator Service (NRLS).  When you contact the Ambulance Service or NHS 111 they can use the NRLS to see if you are receiving a mental health service and get a Trust contact number for further information to help them make decisions about how best to treat you.

The NRLS is secure and confidential and can only be accessed by healthcare professionals directly involved in your care.

Only your NHS number, the type of records and the contact number of someone at the Trust will be shared with the NRLS.

If you do not want to be part of the NRLS, please contact your Care Worker or the Team involved in your care.

Integrated Care Board (ICB)

ICBs are responsible for planning the health needs of their patients, and for paying to keep their local health services running. Information in computerised form is sent to ICBs, with your name and address removed, but including NHS numbers and postcodes. Exactly the same information is sent to the Office of National Statistics which produces information about the performance of hospitals.

Research

Sometimes we undertake studies for which we may ask you for additional co-operation; these studies may involve you in extra tests or visits to the hospital. You always have a choice whether or not to be involved after being given detailed information. If you choose not to take part this will not affect your future treatment in any way.

Please click here for further information about patient information and health and care research.

Keyworker Programme - National Evaluation

The Trust is an early adopter in the Keyworker Programme and is taking part in the national evaluation commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement. Patient consent will be gained before patient information shared. For further information, please see the fair processing notice in the below downloads. 

National Drug Treatment Monitoring Scheme

The Trust shares information about drug and alcohol treatment with the National Drug Treatment Monitoring Scheme (NDTMS).  This is only done with the explicit consent of the patient.  For further information, please see NDTMS: privacy notice - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Primary Care Networks

Our practices are part of a Primary Care Network (PCN). Practices within the PCN work together to create more collaborative workforces which ease the pressure of GP’s, leaving them better able to focus on patient care.

Primary Care Networks form a key building block of the NHS long-term plan. Bringing general practices together to work at scale has been a policy priority for some years for a range of reasons, including improving the ability of practices to recruit and retain staff; to manage financial and estates pressures; to provide a wider range of services to patients and to integrate with the wider health and care system more easily. 

This means we may share your information with other practices within the PCN to support the provision of care and treatment. For example, if you attend a clinic appointment at another practice within the PCN, it is essential that the treating clinician has access to your health record.

The PCN employs health care staff to support practices to improve patient care. PCN health care staff may need access to patient level data to perform their role for the practice. For example, to review patient data to support Early Cancer Diagnosis as required by the PCN contract. Further information can be found NHS England » Network Contract DES.The PCN staff will be acting as our data processor and are covered by a data processing agreement. 

OpenSAFELY

NHS England has been directed by the Government to establish and operate the OpenSAFELY service. This service provides a Trusted Research Environment that supports COVID-19 research and analysis.

Trust GP practices remains the controller of its own patient data but is required to let researchers run queries on pseudonymised patient data. This means identifiers are removed and replaced with a pseudonym, through OpenSAFELY.

Only researchers approved by NHS England are allowed to run these queries and they will not be able to access information that directly or indirectly identifies individuals.

Additional information about OpenSAFELY can be found here.

Clinically-Led workforcE and Activity Redesign (CLEAR)

The Trust is taking part in the Clinically-Led workforcE and Activity Redesign (CLEAR) | Health Education England (hee.nhs.uk) to look at new ways or working and delivering care. This will involve disclosing de-identified patient data to 33n, the company supporting the programme. Data will include a local patient identifier, referral ID, ethnicity, gender, age, structured health data. This is covered by an information sharing agreement and all data will be held and transferred securely. For further information on how 33n will process this data CLEAR and data privacy - CLEAR (clearprogramme.org.uk)

Students

From time to time, staff caring for you may be accompanied by students for teaching purposes. You have the right to refuse the presence of a student. If you have strong feelings about this or require any further information do not hesitate to let staff know.

SMS Text messaging, telephone and videoconferencing

Your contact details are important to us; ensuring that we can contact you in regard to appointment bookings, appointment cancellations and as a means of reminding you of your forthcoming appointments. The contact information we store will only be used by us in relation to your care and treatment.  We will not pass on your information to any other party.  You will be asked for your agreement to contact you in this way.

We may offer you a consultation via telephone or videoconferencing.  By accepting the invitation and entering the consultation you are consenting to this.  Your personal/confidential patient information will be safeguarded in the same way it would with any consultation.

Sending Data to other countries

Sometimes your data may be processed outside of the UK. In most circumstances it will remain in the European Economic Area (EEA) and will have the same protection as if processed within this country.  When it is outside the EEA we will identify the data protections in place prior to transfer.