Privacy notice for patients guide

Your personal information

We aim to provide you with the highest quality care. To do this, we must keep records about you and the care we provide for you. Health records are held on paper and electronically and we have a legal duty to keep these confidential, accurate and secure as per data protection legislation.

Our staff are trained to handle your information correctly and protect your privacy. We aim to maintain high standards, adopt best practice for our record keeping activities and regularly check and report on how we are doing. Your information is never collected for direct marketing purposes and is not sold on to any third parties. Your information is not routinely processed overseas, but if the need arises we will undertake to inform you.

Sometimes your care may be provided by members of a care team, which may include people from other organisations such as health, social care, education, or other relevant partner organisations.

Information is held for specified periods of time as set out in the Records Management Code of
Practice 2021 on NHS Digital website.

Information collected about you to for your health care is also used to assist with:

• Making sure your care is of a high standard
• Using statistical information to look after the health and wellbeing of the general public and planning services to meet the needs of the population
• Assessing your condition against a set of risk criteria to ensure you are receiving the best possible care
• Reporting and investigation of complaints, claims and untoward incidents
• Reporting events to the appropriate authorities when we are required to do so by law
• Preparing statistics on the Trust’s performance for the Department of Health and other regulatory bodies
• Helping train staff and support research
• Supporting the funding of your care

The legal basis for the processing of data for these purposes is that the NHS is an official authority with a public duty to care for its patients, as guided by the Department of Health, and Data Protection legislation says it is appropriate to do so for health and social care treatment of patients, and the management of health or social care systems and services.

Our community services, including our walk-in centres, are required to share limited personal details with NHS Digital. If you wish to opt out of this or want further information, please contact a member of staff on 0151 295 3014.

Our children’s services record information on your child and your family. We share this information with our health and social care partners when it is in the interest of you and or your child. We will
ask for your consent if we share health information with other organisations not involved in the health of your child.

Limited information is shared between our children’s services and the local authority to ensure our school nurses have the right class lists.

If we need to use your personal information for any reason beyond those stated above, we will discuss this with you. You have the right to ask us not to use your information in this way.
However, there are exceptions to this, such as:

• The public interest is thought to be of greater importance, for example:
  • If a serious crime has been committed
  • If there are risks to the public or our staff
  • To protect vulnerable children or adults
• We have a legal duty, for example registering births, reporting some infectious diseases, wounding by firearms and court orders, etc
• We need to use the information for medical research (we have to ask permission from the Confidentiality Advisory Group appointed by the Health Research Authority).

National data opt out policy

A secure and accessible tool for people to opt out of their confidential patient information being used for reasons other than their individual care and treatment is available. This means patients have more control over how their information is used and gives them the opportunity to make informed choices about whether they wish their confidential patient information to be used just for their individual care and treatment or also used for research and planning purposes.

Further information is available on Your NHS Data Matters website. When appropriate, the Trust will apply this policy to its data prior to use.

You can also opt out of the NHS national screening programme website. 

Access to your records

To request copies of your personal information, please email the Information Governance Team via SAR@merseycare.nhs.uk and they will ensure your request reaches the right team for action.

Further Information

Visit our website for further details on any information in this leaflet.

If you have any further queries on the uses of your information, speak to one of the following:

• Your healthcare professional
• The Trust’s Patient Advice and Liaison Service by telephoning 0151 471 2377 or email PALS@merseycare.nhs.uk
• The Trust’s Data Protection Officer by email DPO@merseycare.nhs.uk

Our patients matter

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust listens and responds to patients and their carers to help improve the services we deliver.

If you have any comments, compliments or concerns you can speak with a member of staff or contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) and Complaints Team.

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust
V7 Building
Kings Business Park
Prescot
Merseyside
L34 1PJ

Telephone: 0151 471 2377 - freephone: 0800 328 2941

Email: palsandcomplaints@merseycare.nhs.uk