We take your privacy very seriously. We are registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office as a Data Controller and our registration number can be found if you search the ICO online register.

We aim to provide you with the highest quality health care.

To do this we must keep records about you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide to you.

Your doctor and other health professionals caring for you, such as nurses or physiotherapists, keep records about your health and treatment so that they are able to provide you with the best possible care.

Please be aware that both clinical and administrative staff will access your personal data, this allows us to manage high volumes of communication and activity.

Administrative staff are bound by confidentiality in the same way as the clinician is and will keep your information private.

These records are called your ‘health care record’ and may be stored in paper form or on computer and electronic systems and may include Personal Data;

• basic details about you, such as address, date of birth, NHS number, and next of kin​

as well as Sensitive Personal Data;

• contact we have had with you, such as clinical visits
• notes and reports about your health
• details and records about your treatment and care
• results of x-rays, laboratory tests etc​

Healthcare providers are permitted to collect, store, use and share this information under Data Protection Legislation which has a specific section related to healthcare information.

If you have any questions or wish to make a request in relation to your information, please contact us using the details on our main page or contact our Data Protection Officer at 

​Our Data Protection Officer service is provided by Kafico Ltd. When we ask for their support, we will aim to remove any reference to individual patients. Where this is not possible, we will use the minimum necessary to allow us to obtain advice and support.

You can find out more about Kafico Ltd, including their privacy policy at https://www.kafico.co.uk/privacy-policy

Below is a description of the routine uses of your information;

• Refer you to other healthcare providers when you need other service or tests
• Discuss or share information about your health or care with other health or social care providers​
• Share samples with laboratories for testing (like blood samples)​
• Share test results with hospitals or community services (like blood test results)
• Allow out of hours or extended hours GPs to look at your health record when you are going to an appointment
• Send prescriptions to a pharmacy
• Text patients in relation to healthcare services. See Information Technology for more information.
• Samples are provided to the courier for delivery to pathology
• Share reports with the coroner
• Receive reports of appointments you have attended elsewhere such as with the community nurse or if you have had a stay in hospital
• Produce medical reports on request from third parties such as the DVLA or your employer
• Movement of Patient records to Primary Care Support England

Along with activities related directly to your care, we also use information in ways which allow us to check that care is safe and provide data for the improvement and planning of services.

• Quality / payment / performance reports are provided to service commissioners
• As part of clinical research – information that identifies you will be removed, unless you have consented to being identified
• Undertaking clinical audits locally to ensure safety and efficiency
• Supporting staff training
• Incident and complaint management
• Sending South Norfolk Healthcare information to other NHS bodies for national audits or research that are required by law (e.g. NHS Digital Audit Data Collection) or the Learning Disabilities Census
• Local evaluations and planning activities

Sometimes we will be required by law to share your information and will not always be able to discuss this with you directly. Examples might be for the purposes of detection or prevention of crime, where it is in the wider public interest, to safeguard children or vulnerable adults, reporting infectious diseases or where required by court order.

Care Quality Commission Access to Health Records

CQC has powers under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to access and use your health information where it is necessary to carry out their functions as a regulator.​

This means that inspectors may ask to look at certain records to decide whether we are providing safe, good quality care.

More information about the CQC can be obtained on their website https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-policies/privacy-statement

Young people from aged 13 (and sometimes younger) are allowed to make decisions about how their health information is shared.

A parent or guardian may apply for access to young person’s information.

If a young person does not consent – we may not provide access to the adult.

If the young person does not have the capacity to understand, we may provide access to the adult because it is in the young person’s best interest to do so.

Young people can ask us to keep certain parts of their information confidential.

If the young person is making decisions about their information that puts them at risk – we may notify adults with parental rights.

South Norfolk Healthcare CIC will use third parties to provide services that involve your information such as;

• Removal and destruction of confidential waste
• Provision of clinical systems
• Provision of connectivity and servers
• Digital dictation services
• Data analytics or warehousing (these allow us to make decisions about care or see how effectively South Norfolk Healthcare is run – personal data will never be sold or made available to organisations not related to your care delivery)

We have contracts in place with these third parties that prevent them from using it in any other way that instructed. These contracts also require them to maintain good standards of security to ensure your confidentiality.

Text Messaging

South Norfolk Healthcare may wish to use text messaging to communicate with you about South Norfolk Healthcare activities or your own healthcare. 

We may text you;

• To send survey/questionnaires which save directly into your record 
• With a link so you can send photos to the clinician of your rash or lump for example
• Ask you to update clinicians on your treatment or wellbeing
• Invite you to health screenings or vaccinations
• send referrals letters or summaries
• Contact you if you miss an appointment e.g. at outpatients 
• Contact you if you are not able to answer a phone call
• Send you test results or ask you to call to discuss your results
• Send you general public health messages about COVID 19, flu clinics, mental health or wellbeing services
• In relation to research projects, unless you have objected

You can object at any time by getting in touch with us.

If you share a mobile phone with someone, please be mindful that they may see information about your health.

For information about the providers, we use for our SMS, please see our list of providers on the main privacy policy page.

Data protection law provides you with a number of rights that South Norfolk Healthcare is committed to supporting you with;

Right to Access

You have the right to obtain:

• Confirmation that your information is being used, stored or shared by South Norfolk Healthcare
• A copy of information held about you
• We will respond to your request within one month of receipt or will tell you when it might take longer.
• We are required to validate your identity including the identity of someone making a request on your behalf

Right to Object or Withdrawn Consent

​We mainly use, store and share your information because we are permitted in order to deliver your healthcare, but you do have a right to object to us doing this.

Where we are using, storing and sharing your information based on explicit consent you have provided, you have a right to withdraw that consent at any time.

You can choose to opt out of sharing your confidential patient information for research and planning. There may still be times when your confidential patient information is used: for example, during an epidemic where there might be a risk to you or to other people’s health. You can also still consent to take part in a specific research project.

Visit nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters to opt out.

Our Data Protection Officer will be happy to speak with you about any concerns you have.

Right to Correction

If information about you is incorrect, you are entitled to request that we correct it

There may be occasions, where we are required by law to maintain the original information – our Data Protection Officer will talk to you about this and you may request that the information is not used during this time.

We will respond to your request within one month of receipt or will tell you when it might take longer.

Right to Complain

You also have the right to make complaints and request investigations into the way your information is used. Please contact our Data Protection Officer or visit the link below for more information.

For more detailed information on your rights visit https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/individual-rights/

We are committed to ensuring the security and confidentiality of your information.

There are a number of ways we do this;

• Staff receive annual training about protecting and using personal data
• Policies are in place for staff to follow and are regularly reviewed
• We check that only the minimum amount of data is shared or accessed
• We use ‘smartcards’ to access systems, this helps to ensure that the right people are accessing data – people with a ‘need to know’
• We use encrypted emails and storage which would make it difficult for someone to ‘intercept’ your information
• We report and manage incidents to make sure we learn from them and improve
• We put in place contracts that require providers and suppliers to protect your data as well
• We do not send your data outside of the UK without appropriate, lawful safeguards.

In line with the NHSX Records Management Code of Practice, we will retain / store your health record for your lifetime.
When a patient dies, we will send your record to Primary Care Services England review the record and generally it will be destroyed 10 years later, unless there is a reason to keep it for longer.

You can find a list of the organisations we may share information with by clicking here.

Below, you will see a list of the suppliers that help us deliver our services.

South Norfolk Health provides a number of services that involve the use of your personal data. We have explained each of these services below;

Visiting Nurse Service

Practices will refer patients for home visits (domestic, residential or nursing) at which point South Norfolk Healthcare nurses will undertake the visit in order to provide patients who are housebound with necessary direct care. This involves us accessing the health record of the patient we visit to ensure we can treat them safely. We write paper notes during the visit and then will access your GP record with the outcome of the visit.

Long Wait Projects

If a hospital or other provider has a long list of patients waiting to for care or support, they will provide South Norfolk Healthcare with a list of those patients.

Our team will contact the patients and give them an opportunity to tell us how they are feeling and their current health and wellbeing status.   Our doctors and other professionals will use the patient feedback and also the information within the GP systems to identify patients that most need care and support.   We will then let the hospital or other provider know.

Referral Management Service

When GPs refer patients to particular services in the local area, South Norfolk Healthcare will review the referrals to ensure it is accurate and appropriate. SNH RMS contacts patient to offer choices of all appropriate / available services in e-RS. We will contact the patient to confirm and arrange the booking and send any necessary paperwork.