What Information do we collect from you?

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) was formed on 1 April 2020 following the merger of University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and Weston Area Health NHS Trust.

The information on this page is historic. Visit the UHBW what we do with your information page for the latest information.

What Information do we collect from you?

Health and social care professionals working with you - such as doctors, nurses, support workers, psychologists, occupational therapists, social workers and other staff involved in your care - keep records about your health and any care and treatment you receive. This may include:

Basic details such as name, address, date of birth, phone number, and email address - where you have provided it to enable us to communicate with you by email
Your next of kin and their contact details
Notes and reports about your physical or mental health and any treatment, care or support you need and receive
Results of x-rays, scans, laboratory tests and diagnosis
Relevant information from other professionals, relatives or those who care for you or know you well
Any contacts you have with us such as home visits or outpatient appointments
Information on medicines, side effects and allergies
If you stay in one of our hospitals, information about your menu choices and meals provided
Relevant information from people who care for you and know you well, such as health professionals and relatives.
Patient experience feedback and treatment outcome information you provide

It is essential that your details are accurate and up to date. Always check that your personal details are correct when you visit us and please inform us of any changes as soon as possible.

Most of your records are electronic and are held on a computer system and secure IT network. New models of service delivery are being implemented, with closer working with GPs and other healthcare and social care providers. To make this possible, the use of other electronic patient record systems to share your information will be implemented. You will be given the opportunity to say no and to object to this sharing. Sharing your information via secure electronic methods, means that necessary information relating to you which is relevant to the care that you need, is shared more quickly and accurately. If you opt out of your information being shared via this method, then this information will still be shared via the slower more traditional routes such as letters, phone calls and emails. See also Connecting Care below.

Why do we collect this information about you?

Your information is used to guide and record the care you receive and is vital in helping us to;

have all the information necessary for assessing your needs and for making decisions with you about your care
have details of our contact with you, such as referrals and appointments and can see the services you have received
assess the quality of care we give you
ensure that appropriate information is available if you see another doctor, or are referred to a specialist or another part of the NHS, Social Care or another health provider
Properly investigate if you and your family have a concern or a complaint about your healthcare.
Professionals involved in your care will also have accurate and up-to-date information and this accurate information about you is also available if you:
move to another area
need to use another service
See a different healthcare professional.

What is your legal basis for processing my personal information?

When you consent to treatment we do not rely on that same consent to use your information as a 'legal basis for processing'. We rely on specific provisions under Article 6 and 9 of the General Data Protection Regulation, such as '…a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.'

In particular the Trust has a legal duty under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 to maintain securely an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record in respect of each service user, including a record of the care and treatment provided to the service user and of decisions taken in relation to the care and treatment provided. Because of this there are limitations on your rights to object to the keeping of records or to ask for them to be deleted.

This means we can use your personal information to provide you with your care without seeking your consent.

Other legal duties may require us to use your information for processing a complaint, for assessing, monitoring and improving the quality and safety of the services we provide, to seek feedback on the quality of services, or for the general management of the NHS.

The NHS is supported by a complex network of statutory duties and powers. We have provided here an overview of the main provisions applying to the Trust. If you require specific information about the particular duty or power supporting any activity please contact the Data Protection Officer: wnt-tr.dpo@nhs.net.

What else do we use your information for

In addition to using your information for managing your care it may be used for some additional purposes including:

planning managing and improving NHS Services. To help us monitor our performance, evaluate and develop the services we provide, it is necessary to review and share minimal information, for example with the NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups. The information we share would be anonymous so you cannot be identified and all access to and use of this information is strictly controlled.
clinical audits and other quality improvement projects/activities. We try continually to raise the standard of care we provide. To do this we need to review the clinical work we do, this is typically done using a process known as Clinical Audit. Access to your patient records for this purpose is monitored and only anonymous information is used in any reports that are shared internally with in our Trust.
approving payments where you have an individually commissioned care plan
recovering costs if you are an out of area patient and some other NHS organisation is responsible for the cost of your care
contribute to service development (the Trust may contact patients to raise awareness of the Trust's designated charities, but will not share personal data with them)
prepare statistics on NHS performance;
internal and External audit of Trust accounts
helping to train health professionals. The information you give us is vital in helping us to educate the health workers of the future. However, you always have the right to choose whether not to have students present during a consultation.
health research and development - see also the section on use of data for research purposes below.
Wherever possible these activities will use anonymised information and in all cases will use only the minimum personal data required. The Trust adopts the principles in the Information Commissioner's Anonymisation Code of Practice which you can find here.
Where we do use information for these purposes we will only do so if there is a proper legal basis to do so - for example an approval under s251 of the National
Health Service Act 2006 allows us to use personal data to validate payments for out of area treatments.

In some cases you have the right to opt-out of the use of your information for purposes other than your direct care. See the section on the National Data Opt-Out below.