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Privacy Policy

The Telemedicine Service is an NHS service, hosted and partially provided by Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (HHFT). As such, our privacy policy mirrors HHFT’s privacy notice. For further information about HHFT, please refer to this page. The following information has been tailored specifically for care home staff and their residents.

Telemedicine and HHFT takes data privacy and confidentiality very seriously. Like the Trust, we fully comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 at all times and maintain the highest standards in Data Security and Protection.

Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs), Risk Assessments and Data Flows are used by the Telemedicine and the Trust to assess risks and identify the legal basis for collection, use, sharing and any other processing of data. These documents are approved by the Data Protection Officer.

Contacts

Jessica Hodge, Data Protection Officer
Email: jessica.hodge@hhft.nhs.uk
Telephone: 01962 824285

Data Security and Protection team
Email: Information.Governance@hhft.nhs.uk

Your and your resident’s information is used to ensure that:

  • staff caring for your resident have accurate and up to date information to help them assess and decide the best possible care and treatment needed
  • we can contact you in relation to your resident’s care and treatment
  • treatments and services meet the needs of your care home
  • information is available should your resident need another form of care, for example if they are referred to a specialist or another part of the NHS
  • there is a good basis for looking back and assessing the type and quality of care your resident has received
  • your concerns can be properly investigated should you need to complain

Recording of phone calls

Telemedicine records all calls for training and monitoring purposes. Recording of calls is necessary to protect the interests of residents and staff and is undertaken to ensure that we can provide the best care in a safe and secure environment. Call recording are automatically deleted after 90 days.

Legal basis for data processing

Personal information we hold about you and your resident is deemed to be ‘necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority’ and necessary for ‘medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems’ as set out in Article 6(1)(e) and 9(2)(h) of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

We recognise the importance of protecting personal and confidential information in all that we do, and take care to meet our legal and other duties, including compliance with the following:

  • Data Protection Act 2018
  • General Data Protection Regulations 2018
  • Human Rights Act 1998
  • Access to Health Records Act 1990
  • Freedom of Information Act 2000
  • Health and Social Care Act 2012, 2015
  • Public Records Act 1958
  • Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988
  • Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regs 2004
  • Computer Misuse Act 1990
  • Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
  • NHS Care Records Guarantee for England
  • Social Care Records Guarantee for England
  • International information Security Standards
  • Information Security Code of Practice
  • Records Management Code of Practice
  • Accessible Information Standards

The rights of your residents

Telemedicine wants to make sure your residents have the best care. The health and adult social care information we collect, supports your resident’s individual care. Please see NHS Choices for further information.

If we need to use your resident’s personal information for any reasons beyond those stated in the sections above, we will discuss this with you and ask for explicit consent. The General Data Protection Regulations gives your residents certain rights, including the right to:

  • Request access to the personal data we hold about you or your resident, e.g. in health records. For details about how to request this see ‘Access to your health records’ on our website.
  • Request the correction of inaccurate or incomplete information recorded in our health records, subject to certain safeguards.
  • Request your resident’s personal information to be transferred to other providers on certain occasions.
  • Every effort is made to keep your information confidential and only share information when absolutely necessary.

Data retention

All records held by the Telemedicine are subject to the Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care Act 2016 (the Code). The Code sets out best practice guidance on how long we should keep your resident’s information before we are able to review and securely dispose of it.

What to do if you have a complaint or concern regarding your data

We try to meet the highest standards when collecting and using personal information. We encourage people to bring concerns to our attention and we take any complaints we receive very seriously.

Customer Care Team
Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital
Aldermaston Road
Basingstoke
Hampshire
RG24 9NA

Email: customercare@hhft.nhs.uk
Call: 01256 486766
Further details are available on our HHFT’s main website.

If you remain dissatisfied with the decision following your complaint, you may wish to contact:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

You can find their website here. The Information Commissioner will not normally consider an appeal until you have exhausted your rights of redress and complaint to HHFT.

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