Farleigh Hospice is committed to protecting your privacy, upholding your right to confidentiality and keeping any personal information that you share with us safe and secure.
This leaflet is intended to help patients and families/carers to understand our practices regarding clinical service users’ personal information and how we collect, use and store this information.
Who is a clinical service user?
A clinical service user is anyone who
- Is currently receiving support or care from one of our services.
- Has previously received support or care from one of our services.
- Someone who has made an enquiry and/or has been referred to the hospice but is yet to receive support.
- Someone who has previously been referred to the hospice for support or care however did not receive a service from us.
What information do we collect?
The types of information that we might hold includes:
- Title and full name
- Postal address
- Date of birth;
- Contact details including email and telephone number
- Next of kin and family information
- Your doctor’s contact details
- Family connections of others service users
- Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) images and video footage – recorded for security purposes at our buildings.
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.
This may include:
- 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, well-being 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 Farleigh 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.
How do we collect information?
We collect information in the following ways:
- Data is given to us by you
- Referral from another health or social care provider
- CCTV Cameras.
How do we use this 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 provide advice 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.
We may need to share relevant personal information with other healthcare organisations. For example, 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 need to 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. However, we will not disclose any health information to any other third parties without your explicit consent unless there are circumstances, such as when the health or safety of others is at risk or where current legislation permits or requires it.
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.
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
- Contact you with regards to patient satisfaction surveys relating to services you have used within our hospice so as to further improve our services to patients.
For statistical and reporting purposes your information will be anonymised and it will not be possible to identify you. This information may be shared with NHS and other care agencies as well as with Clinical Commissioning Groups and lead care providers where a legal basis for processing permits us to do so.
Storage and security
Farleigh Hospice will ensure your personal information is stored securely including:
- Encryption (information can only be accessed using a password or code)
- Providing access to systems under the Principal of least privilege, preventing unauthorised personnel from accessing your data
- Annual mandatory data protection training for all staff
- Regular security and access auditing
- Regular testing of technology and reviewing ways of working including keeping up to date on the latest security updates.
Your personal information will always be stored within the European Economic Area (EEA) and all practical steps will be made to ensure your personal information is not sent to a country that is not seen as ‘safe’ by the UK or EU governments.
Right of access and changing your personal information
You have the right to request:
- Information about how your personal data is processed
- A copy of that personal data
- Any inaccuracies in your personal data are corrected.
You can also:
- Raise an objection about how your personal data is processed
- Request that your personal data is erased if there is no longer a justification for keeping it
- Ask that the processing of your personal data is restricted in certain circumstances
To submit a request or for more information please email: [email protected]
How long do we keep your personal information?
We will not keep your personal information for any longer than is necessary. There are some legal requirements which state certain information is kept for a set period of time i.e. financial and medical records.
We keep personal information for as long as there is a need to keep it in connection with the purposes for which it was collected. The length of time may depend on the reason for which we are processing the data and the type of data being processed. We will carefully and securely dispose of any information after the retention period has expired.
How to contact us
General information:
Farleigh Hospice, North Court Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 7FH
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01245 457300
Data Protection:
Data Protection Officer, Farleigh Hospice, North Court Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM1 7FH
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 01245 457300
We value your feedback
It is important for us to understand your experience of our patient services so that we can continue to meet the highest standards of care.
Please share your feedback with a member of the Farleigh team or alternatively, please visit farleighhospice.org/feedback to complete a short survey.