Covid-19 and your information - Updated on 24th April 2020
Supplementary privacy note on Covid-19 for Service Users
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; Arm’s 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 videoconferencing. 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.