Your Information, Your Rights

Who are we?

Provide is a Community Interest Company (social enterprise). We deliver a broad range of health and social care services in the community and are committed to making sure that they are safe, responsive and of high quality.

We provide services in Essex, East Anglia, Dorset and the North of England. We have an income of approximately £100 million, employ over 1,200 people and serve communities in ten counties with a population of more than 11 million people. We have made over £4.5 million in charitable donations.

Provide is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to process personal and special categories of information under the Data Protection Act and our registration number is Z2604172

Why we keep personal information about you

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.

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 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 other third parties. In most cases your information is held in the UK however some of the service providers we use may hold your information outside the UK. If we do transfer your personal information outside the of the UK we will make sure that it is protected to the same extent as it would be within the UK.

Information is held for specified periods of time as set out in the Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care.

What information do we keep about you?

The information we hold may include:

Basic details, such as your name, address and next of kin.

Contacts we have had with you, such as clinic visits.

Notes and reports about your health and any treatment or care you needed.

Details about your treatment and care.

Results of investigations such as blood tests or scans etc.

Information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you.

Community Services Data Set (CSDS)

The Department of Health and NHS England tell us to collect certain data in addition to what we collect for your direct care, so they can learn about specific areas of policy interest. The CSDS re-uses clinical and operational data for purposes other than direct patient care, such as for example reporting for effective commissioning, monitoring outcomes or addressing health inequalities.

CSDS sets out national definitions for the extraction of data about children and adults including: personal and demographic social and personal circumstances breastfeeding and nutrition diagnoses, including long-term conditions and disabilities, etc.

You can however decline to have your data included within the CSDS. You can find more information on Community Services Data SetNHS Digital

How do we collect information about you?

We collect information about you in a number of ways:

Information you tell us: Some of our services accept self-referrals which means that you can contact us directly to arrange an appointment and do not need to be referred by your GP. You will be asked for certain information when you contact us by phone or online chat service to enable us to book you an appointment, answer your queries and to be able to provide appropriate care. You may also be asked to complete a form online or when you come in for your appointment so that we have pertinent information to be able to help you.

Information others tell us: Where you are referred to us from another health care professional, for example you’re GP, they will share relevant information about the care you have received from them to enable us to provide effective and safe care to you. We may also request to see information held in your GP Record where we consider this to be relevant to your care. The majority of our services store your health record on a system called TPP SystmOne which is used widely across the NHS and care organisations to maintain accurate medical records about you. You can choose which other organisations involved in your care can view your

full medical record. Speak to your GP to set your choice or you can set them yourself using SystmOnline. For more information please visit https://systmonline.tpp-uk.com/2/ help/help.html

The NHS Personal Demographics Service: When we register you to receive care from one of our services, we receive information from the NHS Personal Demographic Service. The PDS is the national electronic database of NHS patient details such as name, address, date of birth and NHS number (known as demographic information). This is to ensure that the information we hold about you is accurate and up-to-date and to ensure that you are entitled to receive NHS care.

NHS Summary Care Record: To support you and provide high quality and safe health care, it may be necessary to access your NHS Summary Care Record. The NHS Summary Care Record is an electronic summary of key clinical information (including medicines, allergies and adverse reactions) sourced from your GP Record. We will discuss this with you should the need arise to access this and will only do so with your permission, unless another legal reason to access applies (please see below).

How do we hold your information?

We create and hold your records electronically and sometimes in hard copy where necessary. We may also hold paper records from previous contacts.

Any records we hold about you are held securely and are only accessible to those who are involved in your care or have a legitimate need to access. Electronic health records are accessed by use of an NHS Smartcard which are issued to our staff under strict NHS protocols. Any access by our staff to your health records is fully audited.

All of our staff and contractors receive appropriate and ongoing training to ensure they are aware of their personal responsibilities and have contractual obligations to uphold confidentiality, enforceable through disciplinary procedures. Staff only have access to personal information where it is appropriate to their role and is strictly on a need-to-know basis.

How do we use your information?

Information collected about you to deliver 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.

Helping train staff and support research.

Supporting the funding of your 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.

The legal basis for the processing of data for these purposes is that as a provider of NHS care we have a public duty to care for its patients, as guided by the Department of Health, Data Protection law 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.

There may also be situations where we are under a duty to share your information. We are required by law to report certain information to the appropriate authorities. Occasions when we must pass on information include: notification of new births, infectious diseases that may endanger others, such as meningitis and measles (but not HIV/AIDS), where a formal court order has been issued, and sharing with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to inspect the quality and safety of the care that we provide. We may also have to share your information when it is absolutely necessary for the prevention or detection of crime or prosecution of offenders or where there are serious risks to the public or our staff.

We may also use your information to request feedback from you, such as requesting to complete the Friends and Family survey in order to help improve the quality of services to you and our service users, particularly the quality of experience undergone by patients.

Who can see your information?

Your information is only accessible to those involved in your care or administration. Administrative staff include receptionists who check patients in for clinics, staff in our Care Coordination Centre who book appointments and answer patient queries, and staff who assist with clinics, for example typing up letters and preparing reports. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.

Provide CIC is part of My Care Record, an approach to improving care by joining up health and care information. Health and care professionals from other services will be able to view information from the records we hold about you when it is needed for your care. Please see mycarerecord.org.uk for more information.

Organisations that we often share information with include:

Social Care

NHS Hospitals & Clinics

General Practitioners

Ambulance Services

Voluntary Sector Organisations

Other Community Health Providers

Mental Health Trusts

Also, Subject to Strict Protocols: Education Services, Local Authority Services, Private Sector Providers, Children’s Centre’s, Commissioners of our Services, the Department of Health, the Family Health Service Authority (FHSA) and the Health Protection Agency

We will only share information with those who have a legitimate right to know.

How the NHS and Care Services use your information

Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected in a patient record for that service. Collecting this information helps to ensure you get the best possible care and treatment.

The information collected about you when you use these services can also be provided to and used by other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care*, for instance to help with:

improving the quality and standards of care provided research into the development of new treatments preventing illness and diseases monitoring safety planning services

This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law.

Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed.

You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way through the NHS National Data Opt out Policy. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.

To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters

On this web page you will:

See what is meant by confidential patient information

Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care

Find out more about the benefits of sharing data

Understand more about who uses the data

Find out how your data is protected

Be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting

Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone

See the situations where the opt-out will not apply

You can change your mind about your choice at any time.

Health and care organisations must put systems and processes in place so they can be compliant with the national data opt-out and apply your choice. Provide is compliant with the NHS national data opt-out policy.

*Data being shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.

Your rights

If we need to use your personal information for any reasons beyond those stated above, we will discuss this with you and ask for your permission to do so where you will have the option to agree or disagree. This is known as explicit consent. Data Protection laws gives individuals rights in respect of the personal information that we hold about you. These are:

1 To ask for access to your information (see our Your Rights page on our website)

2 To ask for your information to be corrected if it is inaccurate or incomplete. (see our Your Rights page on our website)

3 To ask for your information to be deleted or erased. Please note that this does not apply to your health or care record, or where we process information for public health or scientific research purposes.

4 To ask us to restrict the use of your information in some circumstances.

5 We may use automated decision making in processing your personal information for some services. You can request a manual review of the accuracy of an automated decision if you are unhappy with it.

6 To request your personal information to be transferred to other providers on certain occasions.

Should you have any further queries on the uses of your information, please speak to your health professional, our Customer Services Team, or our Data Protection Officer – by contacting provide.infogov @ nhs.net

Should you wish to lodge a complaint about the use of your information, please contact our Customer Service Team – provide.enquiries @ nhs.net

If you are still unhappy with the outcome of your enquiry you can write to:

The Information Commissioner, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Telephone: 01625 545700