NHS Lanarkshire is a public organisation created in Scotland under section 1 of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (the 1978 Act). It is one of the organisations which form part of NHS Scotland (NHSS).
We use personal information on different groups of individuals including:
The personal information we use includes information that identifies you like your name, address, date of birth and postcode.
We also use more sensitive types of personal information, including information about racial or ethnic origin; political opinions; religious or philosophical beliefs; trade union membership; genetic and biometric data, health; sex life or sexual orientation.
The information we use can relate to personal and family details; education, training and employment details; financial details; lifestyle and social circumstances; goods and services; visual images; details held in the patient record; responses to surveys.
Under the 1978 Act NHS Lanarkshire has the statutory responsibility to provide or arrange for the provision of a range of healthcare, health improvement and health protection services. We are given these tasks so that we can help to promote the improvement of the physical and mental health of the people of NHS Lanarkshire and assist in operating a comprehensive and integrated national health service in Scotland.
We use personal information to enable us to provide healthcare services for patients (including reminding you of appointments), data matching under the national fraud initiative; research; supporting and managing our employees; maintaining our accounts and records and the use of CCTV systems for crime prevention.
NHS Lanarkshire, as data controller, is required to have a legal basis when using personal information. NHS Lanarkshire considers that performance of our tasks and functions are in the public interest. So when using personal information our legal basis is usually that its use is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, or in the exercise of official authority vested in us. In some situations we may rely on a different legal basis; for example, when we are using personal information to pay a supplier, our legal basis is that its use is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests as a buyer of goods and services. Another example would be for compliance with a legal obligation to which NHS Lanarkshire is subject to, for example under the Public Health etc (Scotland) Act 2008 we are required to notify Health Protection Scotland when someone contracts a specific disease.
When we are using more sensitive types of personal information, including health information, our legal basis is usually that the use is necessary:
On rare occasions we may rely on your explicit consent as our legal basis for using your personal information. When we do this we will explain what it means, and the rights that are available, to you. You should be aware that we will continue to ask for your consent for other things like taking part in a drug trial, or when you are having an operation.
When you do not provide information directly to us, we receive it from other individuals and organisations involved in the delivery of health and care services in Scotland. These include other NHS Boards and primary care contractors such as GPs, dentists, pharmacists and opticians; other public bodies e.g. Local Authorities and suppliers of goods and services.
Depending on the situation, where necessary we will share appropriate, relevant and proportionate personal information in compliance with the law, with the following:
It is sometimes necessary to transfer personal health information overseas for example if you require urgent medical treatment abroad. When this is needed information may be transferred to countries or territories around the world. Any transfers made will be in full compliance with NHSScotland Information Security Policy.
Within NHS Lanarkshire we keep personal information as set out in the Scottish Government Records Management: NHS Code of Practice (Scotland) Version 2.1 January 2012. The NHS Code of Practice sets out minimum retention periods for information, including personal information, held in different types of records including personal health records and administrative records. As directed by the Scottish Government in the Records Management Code of Practice, Annex B - Health Records, Annex C - Administration Records we maintain a retention schedule detailing the minimum retention period for the information and procedures for the safe disposal of personal information.
We take care to ensure your personal information is only accessible to authorised people. Our staff have a legal and contractual duty to keep personal health information secure, and confidential. The following security measures are in place to protect personal information:
This section contains a description of your data protection rights within NHS Lanarkshire.
NHS Lanarkshire must explain how we use your personal information. We use a number of ways to communicate how personal information is used, including:
You have the right to access your own personal information.
This right includes making you aware of what information we hold along with the opportunity to satisfy you that we are using your information fairly and legally.
You have the right to obtain:
Although we must provide this information free of charge, if your request is considered unfounded or excessive, or if you request the same information more than once, we may charge a reasonable fee.
If you would like to access your personal information, you can do this by contacting the service responsible for your care.
Once we have details of your request and you have provided us with enough information for us to locate your personal information, we will respond to your request without delay, within one month (30 days). However If your request is complex we may take longer, by up to two months, to respond. If this is the case we will tell you and explain the reason for the delay.
If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or incomplete you have the right to have this corrected.
If it is agreed that your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete we will aim to amend your records accordingly, normally within one month, or within two months where the request is complex. However, we will contact you as quickly as possible to explain this further if the need to extend our timescales applies to your request. Unless there is a risk to patient safety, we can restrict access to your records to ensure that the inaccurate or incomplete information is not used until amended.
If for any reason we have shared your information with anyone else, perhaps during a referral to another service for example, we will notify them of the changes required so that we can ensure their records are accurate.
If on consideration of your request NHS Lanarkshire does not consider the personal information to be inaccurate then we may add a comment to your record stating your concerns about the information. If this is case we will contact you within one month to explain our reasons for this.
If you are unhappy about how NHS Lanarkshire has responded to your request for rectification we will provide you with information on how you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office, or how to take legal action.
When NHS Lanarkshire is processing your personal information for the purpose of the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority you have the right to object to the processing and also seek that further processing of your personal information is restricted. Provided NHS Lanarkshire can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for processing your personal information, for instance; patient safety or for evidence to support legal claims, your right will not be upheld.
There are other rights under current Data Protection Law however these rights only apply in certain circumstances. For further information on these rights go to http://www.nhslanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk/download/data-protection-notice-other-rights.pdf
NHS Lanarkshire employ a Data Protection Officer (DPO) to check that we handle personal information in a way that meets data protection law. If you are unhappy with the way in which we use your personal information please tell our Data Protection Officer using the contact details below.
Mrs Michelle Nobes
Information Governance Manager, DPO
eHealth Department
Kirklands Hospital
Fallside Road
Edinburgh
Bothwell
G71 8BB
01698 858079
michelle.nobes@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk
You also have the right to complain about how we use your personal information to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). Details about this are on their website at www.ico.org.uk
This leaflet is available in other languages. Please visit NHS Lanarkshire's public website for further details.
The right to erasure is also known as "the right to be forgotten" and in general refers to an individual's right to request the deletion or removal of personal information where there is no compelling reason for NHS Lanarkshire to continue using it.
As with other rights, there are particular conditions around this right and it does not provide individuals with an absolute right to be forgotten.
Individuals have the right to have their personal information deleted or removed in the following circumstances:
NHS Lanarkshire can refuse to deal with your request for erasure when we use your personal information for the following reasons:
When using personal information our legal basis is usually that its use is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us under the NHS Scotland Act as noted previously. This means that in most circumstances we can refuse requests for erasure. However we will advise you of this as soon as possible following receipt of your request.
You have the right to control how we use your personal information in some circumstances. This is known as the right to restriction. When processing is restricted, NHS Lanarkshire are permitted to store your personal information, but not further use it until an agreement is reached with you about further processing. We can retain enough information about you to ensure that your request for restriction is respected in the future.
Examples of ways you can restrict our processing would be:
If we have shared your personal information with any individuals or organisations, if we restrict our processing, we will tell those individuals or organisations about our restriction if it is possible and not an unreasonable amount of effort.
Whenever we decide to lift a restriction on processing we will tell you.
The right to data portability allows individuals to obtain and re-use their personal information for their own purposes across different services. It allows them to move, copy or transfer personal information easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way. For example: it enables consumers to take advantage or applications and services which can use their information to find them a better deal.
The right to data portability only applies when the individual has submitted their personal information directly, through electronic means to NHS Lanarkshire. This means that in most circumstances the right to data portability does not apply within NHS Lanarkshire.
You have the right to object to any instances where a decision is made about you solely by automated means without any human involvement, including profiling.
NHS Lanarkshire does not undertake any decision-making about you using wholly automated means.
