Covid-19 and your information
This notice describes how we may use your information to protect you and others during the Covid-19 outbreak.
It supplements our main Privacy Notice which is
available here
The health and social care system is facing
significant pressures due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Health and care
information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support
health and social care services and to protect public health.
Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking
and managing the outbreak. In the current emergency it has become
even more important to share health and care information across
relevant organisations.
Existing law which allows confidential patient
information to be used and shared appropriately and lawfully in a
public health emergency is being used during this outbreak. Using
this law the Secretary of State has required NHS Digital; NHS
England and Improvement; Arms Length Bodies (such as Public Health
England); local authorities; health organisations and GPs to share
confidential patient information to respond to the Covid-19
outbreak. Any information used or shared during the Covid-19
outbreak will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there
is another legal basis to use the data. Further information
is available on gov.uk
here and some FAQs on this law are available
here.
During this period of emergency, opt-outs will
not generally apply to the data used to support the Covid-19
outbreak, due to the public interest in sharing information.
This includes National Data
Opt-outs. However in relation to the Summary Care Record,
existing choices will be respected. Where data is used and shared
under these laws your right to have personal data erased will also
not apply. It may also take us longer to respond to Subject
Access requests, Freedom of Information requests and new opt-out
requests whilst we focus our efforts on responding to the
outbreak.
In order to look after your health and care
needs we may share your confidential patient information including
health and care records with clinical and non clinical staff in
other health and care providers, for example neighbouring GP
practices, hospitals and NHS 111. We may also use the details we
have to send public health messages to you, either by phone, text
or email.
During this period of emergency we may offer you
a consultation via telephone or video-conferencing. 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 other
consultation.
We will also be required to share
personal/confidential patient information with health and care
organisations and other bodies engaged in disease surveillance for
the purposes of
protecting public health, providing healthcare
services to the public and monitoring and
managing the outbreak. Further information
about how health and care data is being used and shared by other
NHS and social care organisations in a variety of ways to support
the Covid-19 response is
here.
NHS England and Improvement and NHSX have
developed a single, secure store to gather data from across the
health and care system to inform the Covid-19 response. This
includes data already collected by NHS England, NHS Improvement,
Public Health England and NHS Digital. New data will include 999
call data, data about hospital occupancy and A&E capacity data
as well as data provided
by patients themselves. All the data held in the platform
is subject to strict controls that meet the requirements of data
protection legislation.
In such circumstances where you tell us you're
experiencing Covid-19 symptoms we may need to collect specific
health data about you. Where we need to do so, we will not
collect more information than we require and we will ensure that
any information collected is treated with the appropriate
safeguards.
We may amend this privacy notice at any time so
please review it frequently. The date at the top of this page will
be amended each time this notice is updated.