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INFORMATION GOVERNANCE

Sharing Data

We legitimately share information with other organisations:

  • other Hospitals
  • GPs
  • Ambulance Service
  • Police
  • Social care
  • Care Homes & Hospices
  • Charities and voluntary services (e.g. Age UK)

and other companies if they are using it to perform public functions, or they are fulfilling a legislated obligation.

Systematic sharing of personal data will have appropriate controls and agreements in place with partner organisations to ensure they use the data only for legitimate and fair purposes, we call these Information Sharing Agreements.

Sharing Data With Private Companies

We do not share personal or sensitive information with private companies to use for their own means.

We will disclose information with a private company only if they are contracted to provide a service on our behalf or on behalf of another public authority.

We call this ‘data processing’ as these companies are only allowed to use the data within the strict parameters set out in an agreement which they must sign before being allowed access to the information.

For example, we may employ a private company to scan archived paper documents to convert the information to an electronic/digital record.  In these circumstances the organisation would be required to return the original paper information together with all electronic data once the task has been completed.

On occasions, the Trust receives requests to share information that do not fall within the scope outlined above for example, from an insurance company seeking confirmation of an injury. On these occasions, the information will only be shared with explicit consent from the patient or staff member concerned.

Outpatient Clinic Reminder and Digital Letters / Friends & Family Feedback

The Trust would like to remind patients of outpatient appointment using SMS/Text/Landline to help patients avoid missing their appointments.  

We would also like to request feedback on our services and your care and treatment. 

The system used for outpatient appointment reminders and feedback is also used to send patients a digital copy of their appointment letters via SMS/Text message. This SMS/Text will include a unique 4-digit PIN and secure link to the appointment letter.

These services are provided by a third-party supplier, Healthcare Communications, who are the subject of strict contractual arrangements, and offered under the General Data Protection Regulations Article 6 (e) - Public Task, where the processing is necessary to perform a task in the public interest or for our official functions. For any health data that may be shared, this is covered under the General Data Protection Regulations Article 9(2)(h) - the management of health or social care systems.

You will also be able to access appointment details and letters, which are currently available in our patient portal provided by Healthcare Communications, via the NHS app.

You do not have to access them via the NHS app, you can continue to access this information within the portal; this information will only be accessible to you via the NHS app if you provide consent (this is done within the NHS app).

The Trust will share NHS numbers of people signed up to our patient portal with NHS England for this purpose, the NHS app needs to know who is associated with Healthcare Communications so it can find the information you want and access.

For more details on the NHS app please visit https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-app/

If you wish to opt out of either of these initiatives, please contact the appropriate department:

Outpatient Reminder services contact the Appointment Booking Centre on - 0161 419 1010

Friends & Family feedback please contact Patient & Customer Services on - 0161 419 5678

Further details are available in the Trust`s  Patient Information Leaflet GEN101 v3