Who we are
TyneHealth is a GP federation representing all 25 practices in North Tyneside. Together with our GP members, we deliver improved health care in the community to over 224,000 residents, closer to patients’ homes. We are registered in England and Wales under registration number 05927008.
TyneHealth takes your privacy rights very seriously and are committed to always protecting and respecting these rights. This Privacy Notice sets out the way in which the personal information you provide to us (and the information collected by us) is handled, stored and processed.
TyneHealth is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office for data protection purposes (registration number Z1096290).
Why we collect information about you
Health care professionals who provide you with care are required by law to maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received within any NHS organisation. These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare and help us to protect your safety.
We collect and hold data for the purpose of providing healthcare services to our patients and running our organisation which includes monitoring the quality of care that we provide. In carrying out this role we may collect information about you which helps us respond to your queries or secure specialist services. We may keep your information in written form and/or in digital form. The records may include basic details about you, such as your name and address. They may also contain more sensitive information about your health and also information such as outcomes of needs assessments.
The NHS Constitution establishes the principles and values of the NHS in England. It sets out rights to which patients, public and staff are entitled, and pledges which the NHS is committed to achieve, together with responsibilities, which the public, patients and staff owe to one another to ensure that the NHS operates fairly and effectively.
NHS Digital
NHS Digital (part of NHS England) collects health information from the records health and social care providers keep about the care and treatment they give, to promote health or support improvements in the delivery of care services in England https://digital.nhs.uk/
Scope of this Privacy Notice
This Privacy Notice relates to all personal information collected and used by TyneHealth either in relation to our staff, our business contacts, website users and individuals who access our services. It provides an overview of how we use this personal information and your rights in relation to this use.
TyneHealth clinical services are delivered on behalf of various bodies including hospital trusts, Primary Care Networks, North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, Public Health England, North Tyneside Council and practices within the North Tyneside area. Data generated by TyneHealth services may form part of the wider GP record and where this is the case, further information on use of this information can be found in the relevant practice’s privacy notice.
In addition all TyneHealth potential or existing staff will be provided with an Employee Privacy Notice.
Information we use
We collect and use different types of information for different purposes. These include:
• Information that you provide to us when using our services, or that is generated in the course of the use of these services e.g. if you use one of our clinical services such as Enhanced Access Hub or a service provided by us through your GP practice (out of hours doctors services, sexual health services etc). Information collected may include your personal contact details and any health information needed to deliver the service to you)
• You may be offered a remote consultation as an alternative to attending an appointment in person. If you agree to a remote consultation the GP or healthcare professional may need to receive and store images taken by patients for clinical purposes; this could include images for the purpose of intimate clinical assessment. This will only be done in the interests of the patient where it is necessary for providing health care and with patient consent. The approach to video consulting, image sharing, and storage is the same as it would be for face to face interactions. If we need to store images on your GP record this will be only for as long as necessary. It is a patient’s choice to share an image either of a patient’s own accord or on request of the health professional treating you. Refusal to share an image does not prevent access to care and treatment or result in patients receiving an inferior standard of care. Further details about how remote consultation works can be obtained by contacting TyneHealth
• Information that you may provide to us through our recruitment processes or as a TyneHealth member of staff
• Information contained in or relating to any communications that you send to us or send through our website (including the communication content and meta data associated with the communication)
• Any other personal information that you choose to provide to us
Before you disclose to us the personal information of another person, you must obtain that person’s consent to both the disclosure and the processing of that personal information in accordance with this notice.
We keep a Register of all our information processing activities, including those involving the use of personal information. This records lots of metadata including where we get the information from, with whom we share it, the legal basis allowing us to process personal data and the security arrangements in place.
Details we collect about you
In relation to care delivery, the health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (e.g. from Hospitals, GP Surgeries, A&E, etc.). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare. Records which TyneHealth may hold about you may include the following:
• Details about you, such as your address, next of kin and where relevant to your health, your race, religion or sexual orientation
• Any contact TyneHealth has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency appointments, etc.
• Notes and reports about your health,
• Details about your treatment and care
• Results of investigations, such as laboratory tests, x-rays, etc.
• Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you
In addition we may collect other information for other purposes such as information on employment and recruitment for staff or prospective staff members or contact details to deal with enquiries. Further details on these types of information can be found in the defined purposes below.
Source of information
We collect personal information from a number of different sources, including:
• directly from you. For example, when you access healthcare services, submit a query to us including via our website, by email or post
• from other healthcare organisations, such as your GP, an NHS body or a private healthcare provider, for example in order to access your medical records.
How we keep your information confidential and safe
Everyone working for our organisation is subject to the Common Law Duty of Confidence. Information provided in confidence will only be used for specific purposes in accordance with the law.
The NHS Digital Code of Practice on Confidential Information applies to all staff working on behalf of the NHS and they are required to protect your information, inform you of how your information will be used, and allow you to decide if and how your information can be shared. All our staff are expected to make sure information is kept confidential and receive regular training on how to do this.
The records we use may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and we use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Your records are backed up securely in line with NHS standard procedures. We ensure that the information we hold is kept in secure locations, is protected by appropriate security and access is restricted to authorised personnel. We have strict measures, procedures and security features to prevent unauthorised access to your information. Although all appropriate technical security measures have been taken to protect your personal information, be aware that the transmission of any information via the internet is never completely secure and as such any transmission of personal information is made at your own risk.
We also make sure external data processors that support us are legally and contractually bound to operate and prove security arrangements are in place where data that could or does identify a person are processed. We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:
• Data Protection Act 2018 (UK GDPR)
• Human Rights Act
• Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
• NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Information Security
• Health and Social Care Act 2015
• And all applicable legislation
We have a senior person responsible for protecting the confidentiality of patient information and enabling appropriate information sharing. This person is called the Caldicott Guardian. The Caldicott Guardian for TyneHealth is Leslie Miller, who can be contacted using the contact details at the bottom of this Privacy Notice. We also have a Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) who is responsible for owning TyneHealth’s information risk. The SIRO is also Les Miller.
We maintain our duty of confidentiality to you at all times. We will only ever use or pass on information about you if we reasonably believe that others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (such as a risk of serious harm to yourself or others) or where the law requires information to be passed on.
How we use your information
We may use your information for a number of different purposes. For each purpose we must have a “legal ground” to use your personal information in such a way. When the information that we process is classed as sensitive personal information/ special categories of personal information, we must have a specific, additional “legal ground” to process such information.
Generally we will rely on the following “legal grounds”, as appropriate:
• We have a legal or regulatory obligation to use such personal information. For example, where our regulators require us to hold certain records of our dealings with you
• We need to use your personal information in order to protect your vital interests or those of a third party. For example, in order to ensure your safety or the safety of others
• We need to use your personal information for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise or our official authority. For example, in order to provide healthcare services
• We need to use your personal information for purposes of medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems. For example, in order to provide healthcare services and treatment to you
• We need to use such personal information to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights. This might happen when we are faced with legal proceedings or want to bring legal proceedings ourselves
• We need to use your personal information to manage employment practices as part of our recruitment and staffing processes
• You have consented to the use of your personal information
Uses of your information which rely on some of the legal grounds detailed above include:
Healthcare Delivery
TyneHealth records are directly linked with your GP electronic patient record which allows for your GP practice to have a full picture of the care you are receiving from TyneHealth and other services. If you require attention from a local health or care professional outside of your usual practice services, including the Emergency Department, Minor Injury Unit or Out of Hours service, the professionals treating you are better able to give you safe and effective care if this information is available to them.
Where available, this information can be shared electronically with other local healthcare providers via a secure system designed for this purpose. Depending on the service you are using and your health needs, this may involve the healthcare professional accessing a secure system that enables them to view parts of your GP electronic patient record (e.g. Great North Care Record Care Summary or your Summary Care Record) or a secure system that enables them to view your full GP electronic patient record.
As a partner of the Great North Care Record (GNCR), we are required to request and share your information from and with other relevant parties who are part of your care provision and ongoing support. This includes NHS Providers (such as General Practitioners, Acute Health Providers, Ambulance Services and Mental Health Care Providers) as well as local authorities who provide social care.
Improvements in information technology are also making it possible for us to share data with other healthcare organisations for the purpose of providing you, your family and your community with better care. For example it is possible for healthcare professionals in other services to access your record with your permission when the practice is closed. This is explained further in the Local Information Sharing section below.
Under the powers of the Health and Social Care Act 2015, NHS Digital can request personal confidential data from healthcare providers without seeking patient consent for a number of specific purposes, which are set out in law. These purposes are explained below. You may choose to withdraw your consent to personal data being shared for these purposes.
You can object to your personal information being shared with other healthcare providers but should be aware that this may, in some instances, affect your care as important information about your health might not be available to healthcare staff in other organisations. If this limits the treatment that you can receive then TyneHealth staff will explain this to you at the time you object.
To ensure you receive the best possible care, your records are used to facilitate the care you receive. Information held about you may be used to help protect the health of the public and to help us manage the NHS.
Clinical audit
Information may be used by TyneHealth and the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided to patients with long terms conditions. Some of this information may be held centrally and used for statistical purposes (e.g. the National Diabetes Audit). When this happens, strict measures are taken to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified from the data.
Improving Diabetes Care
Information that does not identify individual patients is used to enable focussed discussions to take place at practice-led local diabetes review meetings between health care professionals. This enables the professionals to improve the management and support of these patients.
Population Reporting
We may report on personal data held in GP practice records within SystmOne and EMIS for the purpose of supporting partner agencies in providing direct care and informing planning of healthcare services. This can include identifying relevant cohorts of patient who may be eligible for specific interventions (case finding) or looking at uptake of services in key groups to support improved service delivery.
Third Parties
We may also contract with other organisations to process data. These organisations are known as Data Processors. We ensure external data processors that support us are legally and contractually bound to operate and prove security arrangements are in place where data that could or does identify a person are processed.
Currently, the external data processors we work with include system suppliers for our clinical systems and third parties supporting recruitment and HR activities. More information on this can be found in the disclosure section below.
We record any instances where we transfer personal information to a third country or international organisation. This is very limited and we check and record the safeguards in place to protect the information to be transferred.
Risk Stratification
‘Risk stratification for case finding’ is a process for identifying and managing patients who have or may be at-risk of health conditions (such as diabetes) or who are most likely to need healthcare services (such as people with frailty). Risk stratification tools used in the NHS help determine a person’s risk of suffering a particular condition and enable us to focus on preventing ill health before it develops. Information about you is collected from a number of sources including NHS Trusts, GP Federations and your GP Practice. A risk score is then arrived at through an analysis of your de-identified information. This can help us identify and offer you additional services to improve your health.
Risk-stratification data may also be used to improve local services and commission new services, where there is an identified need. In this area, risk stratification may be commissioned by North East and NOrth Cumbria Integrated Care Board. Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 provides a statutory legal basis to process data for risk stratification purposes. Further information about risk stratification is available from: https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/tsd/ig/risk-stratification /
If you do not wish information about you to be included in any risk stratification programmes, please let us know. Please be aware that this may limit the ability of healthcare professionals to identify if you have or are at risk of developing certain serious health conditions.
Safeguarding
To ensure that adult and children’s safeguarding matters are managed appropriately, access to identifiable information will be shared in some limited circumstances where it’s legally required for the safety of the individuals concerned.
Summary Care Record (SCR)
The NHS in England uses a national electronic record called the Summary Care Record (SCR) to support patient care. It contains key information from your GP record. Your SCR provides authorised healthcare staff with faster, secure access to essential information about you in an emergency or when you need unplanned care, where such information would otherwise be unavailable.
Summary Care Records are there to improve the safety and quality of your care. SCR core information comprises your allergies, adverse reactions and medications. A SCR with additional information can also include reason for medication, vaccinations, significant diagnoses / problems, significant procedures, anticipatory care information and end of life care information. Additional information can only be added to your SCR with your agreement.
Please be aware that if you choose to opt-out of SCR, when accessing TyneHealth services, NHS healthcare staff caring for you may not be aware of your current medications, allergies you suffer from and any bad reactions to medicines you have had, in order to treat you safely in an emergency. Your records will stay as they are now with information being shared by letter, email, fax or phone. If you wish to opt-out of having a SCR please contact your practice directly.
Supporting Medicines Management
Some areas of the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board operate pharmacist prescribing advice services to support local GP practices with prescribing queries, which may require identifiable information to be shared. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians work with your usual GP to provide advice on medicines, prescription ordering processes, prescribing queries, and review prescribing of medicines to ensure that it is appropriate for your individual needs, safe and cost-effective. Where specialist prescribing support is required, the ICB medicines management team may discuss product choice with your GP and your nominated community pharmacist to ensure evidence-based cost effective choices are made to support your care.
Supporting Locally Commissioned Services
TyneHealth may support GP practices by auditing anonymised data to monitor locally commissioned services, measure prevalence and support data quality. The data does not include identifiable information and is used to support patient care and ensure providers are correctly paid for the services they provide.
Ongoing Communications
Where you can contact us with any query or complaint, we will use your contact details and details of your query or complaint to allow us to resolve this and to provide an appropriate response to the issue raised.
Preventing and investigating fraud
We may need to use your information to prevent and investigate fraud. This might include sharing your personal information with third parties such as the police or fraud prevention agencies, for example, NHS Counter Fraud Authority or Audit One.
Managing staff employment and recruitment
We will use the information you provide to us as a member of staff employed by TyneHealth or an individual applying for a position at TyneHealth for the appropriate recruitment of staff and for the ongoing management of staff working for TyneHealth. Further information on types and uses of staff information can be found in the Employee Privacy Notice.
Delivering the TyneHealth website
Information on access and use of our website may be collected as part of using our website. More information can be found in the Cookies Policy section below.
Complying with our legal and regulatory requirements
There may be other occasions where there is a legal or regulatory requirement to share your information e.g. to support Health and Safety legislation or to respond to a court order for information. Where this is the case only the minimum will be shared for these justified purposes.
When we might disclose your information
We may also have to share your information, subject to strict agreements on how it will be used, with the following organisations:
• NHS Trusts
• Specialist Trusts
• GP Practices
• Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
• Private Sector Providers
• Voluntary Sector Providers
• Ambulance Trusts
• Clinical Commissioning Groups
• Social Care Services
• Local Authorities
• Education Services
• Fire and Rescue Services
• Police
• Other ‘data processors’
We will never share your information outside of health partner organisations without your explicit consent unless there are exceptional circumstances such as when the health or safety of others is at risk, where the law requires it or to carry out a statutory function.
Within the health partner organisations and in relation to the above mentioned themes we will assume you are happy to for your information to be shared unless you choose to opt-out (see below). This means you will need to express an explicit wish to not have your information shared with the other organisations; otherwise it will be automatically shared. We are required by law to report certain information to the appropriate authorities. This is only provided after formal permission has been given by a qualified health professional. There are occasions when we must pass on information, such as where we encounter infectious diseases which may endanger the safety of others, such as meningitis or measles (but not HIV/AIDS), and where a formal court order has been issued. Our guiding principle is that we are holding your records in strictest confidence.
We may disclose your personal information to any of our employees, officers, insurers, professional advisers, agents, suppliers or subcontractors insofar as is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this notice. We will also share information with your GP for the purpose of providing appropriate ongoing medical care.
We may disclose your personal information:
• to the extent that we are required to do by law
• in connection with any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings
• in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purpose of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk)
• to any person who we reasonably believe may apply to a court or other competent authority for disclosure of that personal information where, in our reasonable opinion, such or authority would be reasonably likely to order disclosure of that personal information
Except as provided in this notice, we will not provide your personal information to third parties or share or process any of your personal information outside the EU.
How long we keep your information for
Personal information that we process for any purpose shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose. Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section, we will retain your personal information:
• to the extent that we are required to do so by law
• if we believe that the information may be relevant to any ongoing or prospective legal proceedings
• in order to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights (including providing information to others for the purposes of fraud prevention and reducing credit risk)
• to support the ongoing business purposes of TyneHealth as specified above (with due consideration for the rights and freedoms of individuals privacy)
We manage records in line with the Records Management NHS Code of Practice (2021) which sets the required standards of practice in the management of records for those who work within or under contract to NHS organisations in England, based on current legal requirements and professional best practice.
If you would like further details of how personal information is retained by our organisation, please contact us directly.
Your Rights
Your right to opt out
The national data opt-out allows people to opt out of their confidential patient information being used for research and planning. It was introduced on 25 May 2018, providing a facility for individuals to opt-out from the use of their data for research or planning purposes. The national data opt-out replaces the previous ‘type 2’ opt-out, which required NHS Digital not to share a patient’s confidential patient information for purposes beyond their individual care. Any patient that had a type 2 opt-out has had it automatically converted to a national data opt-out from 25 May 2018 and has received a letter giving them more information and a leaflet explaining the new national data opt-out. If a patient wants to change their choice, they can use the new service to do this. You can find out more from TyneHealth or by clicking here.
Patients who have a type 1 opt-out
Some patients will have a type 1 opt-out registered with their GP practice. You can tell the practice if you do not want your confidential patient information held in your GP medical record to be used for purposes other than your individual care. This is commonly called a type 1 opt-out. This opt-out request can only be recorded by your GP practice.
If your wishes cannot be followed, you will be told the reasons (including the legal basis) for that decision. There are certain circumstances where a person is unable to opt out but these are only where the law permits this such as in adult or children’s safeguarding situations.
You have a right in law to refuse or withdraw previously granted consent to the use of your personal information. There are possible consequences of not sharing such as the effect this may have on your care and treatment but these will be explained to you to help with making your decision.
If you wish to exercise your right to opt-out, or to speak to somebody to understand what impact this may have, please contact your practice directly using the usual practice contact details.
You can find out more by clicking here
In addition to the above you have a number of rights under Data Protection law including:
Right to be Informed
You have a right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal information e.g. via this privacy notice.
Right to access your personal information
You have the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. In addition we will tell you whether we use your personal information, what that information is and why we use it. We will also tell you where we obtained the information from and with whom we share that information.
Right to rectification
You have a right to ask for any of your information you believe to be inaccurate to be rectified or completed if it is incomplete. Wherever possible, we will also communicate this change to anyone to whom it may have been disclosed.
Right to erasure
You have the right to have your personal information erased in certain circumstances such as when it is no longer needed by us for the reason we collected it or if you withdraw your consent or object to the use of this information. Please note however that information which is clinically relevant cannot be deleted from medical records, although notes relating to accuracy etc can be added and access appropriately restricted as necessary.
Right to restriction
You have the right to request the restriction or suppression of their personal information in certain circumstances including if you think the information is inaccurate, while we check its accuracy; if you feel it may be being processed unlawfully or you need us to keep it in connection with a legal claim where we no longer need to keep this information.
Right to data portability
You have the right to receive a copy of your personal information in as structured, commonly-used, machine readable format and to have it transferred to another organisation on your request where technically possible (where you have previously consented to the use of this information or it was being processed for contractual purposes).
Right to object
You have a right to object to our use of your information in certain circumstances e.g. for marketing, profiling or some research purposes. This only relates to processing based on our statutory powers or tasks carried out in the public interest.
If you would like to access your own personal information or exercise any of the rights detailed above, please contact us by email at tynehealth.office@nhs.net
In the majority of cases, we will respond to your request within one month of receiving the necessary information required to deal with your request.
We may ask you to supply appropriate evidence of your identity (for this purpose, we will usually accept a photocopy of your passport plus an original copy of a utility bill showing your current address) and any additional information to help us to deal with your request effectively.
There may be some exemptions to dealing with your rights as specified in Data Protection law, but we will ensure you are fully informed of this within a month of receiving your request.
Full information on your rights under the Data Protection Act can be found here
Right to Complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
If you have a concern or are unhappy about the way we use your information then please get in touch. If this cannot be resolved through discussion with us, you can also raise this with the Information Commissioner’s Office:
The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Phone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.gov.uk
More information can be found here
Data Protection Officer (DPO)
The Data Protection Officer is an essential role in facilitating ‘accountability’ and the organisation’s ability to demonstrate compliance with the data protection legislation. The DPO for TyneHealth is Helen McElroy, who can be contacted via the contact details below.
Change of Details
It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details are incorrect in order for this to be amended. Please inform us of any changes so our records for you are accurate and up to date.
Mobile telephone number
If you provide us with your mobile phone number, we may use this to send you reminders about your appointments or other health screening information. Please let us know if you do not wish to receive reminders on your mobile.
Changes to our Privacy Notice
Any changes we may make to our Privacy Notice in the future will be posted on this page, so please check from time to time to see if there are any changes.
Contact
Questions, comments and requests regarding this privacy notice or about the way we use your personal information are welcomed and should be addressed to tynehealth.office@nhs.net
This privacy policy should be read alongside our cookies policy which you can find here.
