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.
Who might we share your information with?
Your health records are confidential and every member of staff within the NHS has a legal duty to keep your information confidential and secure, ensuring that confidential data about you is used only in the course of their duties and for lawful purposes.
Health and Social Care Professionals - Your information will be shared with the team who are caring for you and are providing treatment to you.
We will share information with the following main partner organisations:
You may be receiving care from other people as well as the NHS, for example, Social Care Services. We may need to share some information about you with them so we can all work together for your benefit if they have a genuine need for it. Therefore, we may also share your information, subject to strict agreement about how it will be used, with:
We do this in order to provide the most appropriate treatment and support for you, and your carers, or when the welfare of other people is involved. Where practical we will discuss such sharing with you so that there are no surprises but if necessary for your care we will imply your consent for such sharing from your consent to treatment.
You have the right to object to information sharing at any time. Please discuss this with your relevant health care professional as this could have implications in how you receive further care, including delays in receiving care or it may make the provision of treatment and care most difficult or impossible. Objections to sharing will be noted explicitly within your records in order that all healthcare professionals and staff treating you are aware of your decision. You can also change your mind at any time about this sharing.
However, a person's right to confidentiality is not absolute and there may be other circumstances when we must share information from your patient record with other agencies. These are rare circumstances and we are not required to have your consent for these purposes.
Examples of this are:
We would never share your information for marketing or insurance purposes without your explicit and specific consent.
Who else we may share your information with
NHS England - Where your doctor wants to prescribe certain specialised drugs, approval may be needed from NHS England. In these cases we need to confirm that you meet the required clinical criteria defined by either NICE or NHS England policy. These aim to ensure that treatments are offered to those patients most likely to benefit clinically from them. In order to do this, your doctor will complete a form with your information through a website provided by Blueteq click here for Blueteq Privacy Statement. If you are eligible for the treatment your doctor has prescribed, NHS England will immediately approve this application so you can begin your treatment without delay. Once you have received your treatment, your hospital will ask NHS England for payment for your treatment and NHS England will go through a process to authorise the payment. To allow NHS England to ensure that it pays for treatments for patients who meet the necessary clinical criteria, your personal details will be processed by NHS Digital teams; NHS Digital is the national safe haven set up under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 - Safe Havens have been set up in the NHS to ensure that confidential patient data can be transmitted and stored securely. NHS Digital will de-identify the data so NHS England can match the clinical approval and payment without being able to link any information to a specific individual. Data which identifies you is only used for your direct care purposes. All data required by NHS England for commissioning purposes is de-identified by NHS Digital in line with the Information Commissioners Code of Practice on Anonymisation. Please also see the NHS England Privacy Notice.
Connecting Care Connecting Care is a digital care record system for sharing information in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. It allows instant, secure access to your health and social care records for the professionals involved in your care to help them manage your care better, allowing up-to-date information to be shared quickly and safely.
Relevant information from your digital records is shared with people who look after you. This gives them up-to-date information making your care safer and more efficient.
For more information about Connecting Care, visit the Connecting Care Website
It allows instant, secure access to a summary of your health and social care records for the professionals involved in your care
Connecting Care takes some of the information held in the Trust's medical records together with information from GP practices, other hospitals departments, community services, mental health trusts, out of hours services and local authorities across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. This information combines into a single, shared digital record all about you.
The main types of data which may be shared are;
Person Details and Demographics; Other Addresses Held; Immediate Family Members; Legal Relationships; Key Case Worker (s); Last Known GP Practice; Disabilities; Allergies; Events; Medications; Procedures; Examinations; Investigations; Procedures; Referrals Details; Social / Family History; Next of Kin; Alerts, Risks And Warnings; Admissions; Previous Appointments Details; Future Appointment Details; Assessment; Care Plan Interventions Details; Care Plan Problems Details; Care Plans Details; Carer Details; Diagnosis Details; Diagnostic Tests; radiology information; Discharges; DOLs (Deprivation of Liberty); Early Interventions; Risk Management plans; Safeguarding; End of Life Care Plan.
Only those directly involved with your care and providing health services across Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset who are authorised to use the system can see this information. All authorised users of Connecting Care are required to select a legitimate reason for access to a record; otherwise they are unable to access that record. Usually this will be because, being involved in your treatment they require access in order to provide you with safe and effective treatment based on the best available and most up to date information.
The legal basis for holding information within Connecting Care is the same as for the Trust holding your records initially and also as part of the legal duties on the Trust and its partners to improve the services provided to patients.
As the information is confidential to the original provider you do have the right to object to such sharing. However this may have an impact on your care. If you do object the information will be removed from general view but may still be available for some specific purposes such as protecting someone from harm where a legal duty may override your objection. For further information please see What if I don't want my information shared?
We would also refer you to the Transparency Notice of the Connecting Care website.
Private Patients
The Trust has arrangements with health insurance providers for the provision of private treatment. In such cases we will share information with the insurer as required by our contract with them for the following purposes:
• to provide clinical quality information
• to notify them of any serious incidents
• to pre-authorise treatment
• to invoice them for services
• to assist them when they are investigating a complaint.
• You should refer to your insurers own Privacy Notice.
As required by the Competition & Markets Authority Private Healthcare Market Investigation Order 2014 we may share non-identifiable information about you and your treatment with the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN). For further details see the PHIN Privacy Notice.