The information collected about you can also be used for and shared with other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care. This is known as data processing for secondary (indirect) care purposes.
Examples include:
- Planning, implementing and evaluating population health strategy - Describing population health needs, understanding where the gaps are, the levels of ill health and reasons for them, and designing and implementing services to improve health.
- Managing finances, quality and outcomes - Understanding costs of services delivered, allocating budgets to invest and improve them, and using information to ensure those services are fit for purpose.
- Risk stratification for early intervention and prevention - Identifying which of our residents are in greatest need and ensuring our services are delivered in a timely and effective manner to improve their health.
- Co-ordinating and optimising patient or service user flows - Using service activity data and contact data to optimise health care use by citizens of hospitals and other care facilities whilst improving health and care outcomes.
- Undertaking research - Working with approved researchers to utilise the best possible methods to analyse data and give useful recommendations for planning and delivery of services.
- Public Health including analysis and reduction of healthcare inequalities - Ensuring that delivery of health and healthcare services is equal and equitable for the whole population, for example: Health Checks Equity Audit (audit of access to relevant health services, and how related outcomes are distributed across the population).
You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.
Find out more or to register your choice to opt out. On this web page you will:
- See what is meant by confidential patient information
- Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
- Find out more about the benefits of sharing data
- Understand more about who uses the data
- Find out how your data is protected
- Be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting
- Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone
- See the situations where the opt-out will not apply.
You can also find out more about how patient information is used at:
HRA.nhs.uk (which covers health and care research); and Understandingpatientdata.org.uk (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made).
You can change your mind about your choice at any time.
Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific consent.
Our organisation is compliant with the national data opt-out and will apply your choice to any confidential patient information we use or share for purposes beyond your individual care.