How we use your information - patients
Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust takes your confidentiality and privacy rights seriously. Your information is used by clinical support workers and administrative staff; this could also include professionals based in another location.
Where appropriate, information about your care will be securely shared with other organisations to enable continuation/support for your care:
- Your GP
- Other NHS hospitals
- Community Services
- Hospices
- Social Services
This Sharing of Information Notice should be read in conjunction with the Trust’s Privacy Notice (include hyperlink) which explains how we collect, process, transfer and store your personal information and forms part of our accountability and transparency requirements to you under the General Data Protection Regulation / Data Protection Act 2018.
The Trust aims to provide you with the highest quality of health care. To do this your medical record must be accurate relating to your health and the care that has been provided or planned to be provided to you with.
Our staff are trained to manage your information appropriately and accurately and to protect your privacy. We aim to maintain high standards, adopt best practices for our record keeping and regularly check and report on how we are doing. Our guiding principle is that we hold your records in the strictest of confidence.
Your information is never collected for direct marketing purposes and is not sold onto any third parties.
Below are some examples of where your information is used and by whom:
| CCTV |
CCTV cameras are installed around the Trust to assist in the prevention, investigation and detection of crime and anti-social activity. CCTV recording and equipment are securely stored in a restricted area and are password protected. All images are deleted after a set period, unless the images are required as part of an investigation. |
| Body worn cameras |
Body worn cameras are used within the Trust by security personnel to assist with deterring acts of aggression of verbal and or / physical abuse towards staff. The cameras are worn in a prominent position and are used in an open and honest manner. Images captured by body worn cameras will be deleted directly from the camera unless required for evidence purposes. If this is the case, footage may be handed over to the Police if it is required to form part of a formal investigation |
On the 11 June 2022, the Trust implemented an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) known as Epic.
Epic has enabled the Trust to reduce the number of legacy clinical systems and to provide one single point of reference.
Other benefits that Epic has introduced to the Trust are:
| MyFrimleyHealth Record |
Is a system that grants access to your healthcare record held within Epic. A patient accessible application that enables you to:
|
| EpicCare Link |
Is a digital portal system designed to provide health and social care staff legitimate access to the Trust’s electronic patient record to support the delivery of direct and indirect clinical care. Personal data within Epic is made available to external NHS partners under strict governance controls at both an organisation and individual access level. |
| EpicCare Everywhere | Is a system that provides the user with ‘read only’ access to a patient’s full clinical record to support the continuation of care for the patient with its key partner organisations (as listed below), improving the care and treatment provided to patients upon discharge from the Trust. |
The Trust participates in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) which is the use of digital technology to create systems that are capable of performing tasks commonly thought to require human intelligence. AI can help a health and care professional to reach a decision about your care, e.g., diagnosing a condition you have or to help you in choosing treatment options.
Decisions will not be made solely by the AI system; health and care professionals will always review and provide you with advice, allowing you to make the final decision on the care and treatment you receive.
Examples of where AI technology is used within the Trust:
- Analysing x-ray images, for example mammograms to support Radiologists in carrying out assessments. This frees up clinicians’ time to spend with patients or to screen greater numbers of patients more quickly.
- Analysing stroke patients imaging, shortening the time for patients to be diagnosed, enabling treatment to commence in a more efficient way.
Risk stratification is a process for identifying and supporting patients who are most likely to need hospital or other healthcare services in the future.
Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 provides a statutory legal basis to process data for risk stratification purposes. Risk stratification uses de-identified personal data from health care services to determine which individuals are at risk of experiencing certain outcomes, such as unplanned hospital admissions.
Risk stratification tools used in the NHS help determine a person’s risk of suffering a particular condition and enables the Trust to focus on preventing ill health and not just the treatment of sickness. Unidentifiable and anonymised information about patients is collected from a number of NHS organisations and then analysed to create a risk score, which is provided to your treating clinician. Data is securely managed throughout the entire process to ensure that identities are kept confidential.
| Organisation | Relationship |
|---|---|
| Berkshire and Surrey Pathology Services (BSPS) |
The Trust hosts a joint venture of pathology services between:
|
| Frimley Health and Care Integrated Care Board (ICB) |
The Trust is part of a consortium of 27 different public and private care providers including:
|
| Immediate NHS Partners |
The Trust works in partnership with other NHS organisations such as:
The clinical staff from these organisations may attend Multi-Disciplinary Meetings (MDT) to review a patient’s care and treatment. This is to ensure that the best care and treatment is being provided. |
| Social Services |
The Trust works alongside Hampshire, Slough, and Surrey Social Services whilst you are in hospital, who provide support in planning and assisting your discharge home where required. |
| Summary Care Record (SCR) |
The Summary Care Record also known as SCR is an NHS system that holds electronic patient data which is held on a central secure database covering the whole of England. The purpose of the system is to ensure that essential patient data is readily available to health care professionals anywhere the patient seeks treatment , this system is primarily updated by the patient’s GP. The Trust does not feed information into this system, however staff within the Trust providing treatment may need to access SCR to view your record. The SCR is also accessed by the Trust’s pharmacy staff when issuing prescriptions. The Trust will use the services of external companies to deliver patient’s prescriptions directly to them. |
| Vascular Hub and Cardiac Centre |
The Trust is a Vascular Hub and a Cardiac Centre for Surrey, Hampshire, and Berkshire. Details of your clinical care could be securely shared between the NHS Trusts in these counties to support and deliver your care. An example of this: X-ray images taken at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust could be securely shared with clinicians based at Frimley Park Hospital to discuss your care, which may then need to be forwarded onto the Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust who will provide further care and treatment. |
We will share your information with other organisations, to assist in the provision of the best care possible. When we need to share your information with these organisations, they are subject to strict information sharing protocols. Anyone who receives information from the Trust has a legal duty to keep your information confidential and secure. Only relevant information that is required to support your care and treatment will be provided.
If we need to share your information with other organisations that do not form part of your care, we will obtain your consent beforehand, unless we have a legal obligation to provide the information, or it is essential due to the interests of the public being deemed of greater importance.
There are occasions when we have a legal duty to Pass information to external organisations which operate to oversee and address issues relating to management of the NHS, these include
| Central Registrar of Births and Deaths | Each time a baby is born or when there is a death in our hospitals |
| Care Quality Commission | Who have the powers of inspection and entry into the hospitals and the right to review documentation |
| General Medical Council (GMC)/Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) | Investigations by regulators of professionals |
| Human Tissue Act | For the purposes of removal, storage, use or disposal of human tissue www. |
| NHS Counter Fraud Authority | Is responsible for policy and operational matters relating to the prevention and detection of fraud within the NHS under its statutory authority. |
| National Fraud Initiative | Conducts regular data sharing and analytics pilots to evaluate and improve data matching methodology to continue to help detect and prevent fraud in the most efficient and effective way possible |
| Overseas patients |
If you are an overseas visitor being treated within the Trust, we need information about you to comply with our legal obligations and to ensure that the Trust is paid for any services provided to you (as an overseas patient); as well as to undertake any processing that will allow us to verify whether you are entitled to free NHS care. We may share and receive information about you from other organisations as detailed in this privacy notice as well as the Department of Health & Social Care, when you are referred for treatment or in response to questions relating to your eligibility for free NHS Care, further information can be found at Overseas NHS visitors: implementing the charging regulations - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Where necessary if you are an overseas visitor, your non-medical information may be sent to the Home Office, the information provided may be used and retained by the Home Office for its own purposes, which include enforcing immigration controls overseas, at the ports of entry and within the UK. The Home Office may also share this information with other law enforcements and authorised debt recovery agencies for purposes including national security, investigation and prosecution of crime, and collection of fines and civil penalties. For more information on the services provided to overseas visitors visit; |
| Police |
Must be provided to the police in certain scenarios:
|
| Safeguarding concerns |
For the prevention and protection of a child or vulnerable adult for safeguarding purposes, including cases relating to female genital mutilation. |
Berkshire Surrey Pathology Services (BSPS)
As part of your care, you may have provided samples e.g. urine or blood etc. which will be processed by the Trust’s laboratory, or, if a specialised test, with a partner laboratory. The results of these tests and a record of the drugs you have been prescribed are stored by the Trust. The Trust is part of Berkshire Surrey Pathology Services (BSPS) which is a joint venture of Pathology Services between Ashford and St Peters, Frimley Health, Royal Berkshire, Royal Surrey NHS and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trusts.
To view the BSPS and its Privacy Notice, please see:
www.
Where the Trust is processing information that could result in a risk to the privacy of the individual, the Trust is obliged to complete a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) documenting the company name and a summary of what is being shared
Link to the Trust’s Approved DPIA list
In addition, the Trust on occasion will use an external company based outside of England to support with your care and treatment. A list of overseas organisations and the purpose of use is listed below. The lists are reviewed regularly and are approved by the Trust’s Data Protection Officer and signed off officially by the Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO)
Link to the Trust’s Overseas List