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Privacy statement for family/carers of residents/patients

At Barchester Healthcare we are committed to protecting your personal data and handling it responsibly. As such, we have updated our Privacy Policy to explain how we manage your data.

The changes we have made are in line with new data protection laws, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, which is effective from 25th May 2018. This is part of our ongoing commitment to be transparent about how we use your personal data and keep it safe.

Privacy Statement for relatives/carers of residents/patients

July 2018

 Key points:

  • Why we use your data: We typically use your personal information in relation to the care and treatment of our residents/patients.
  • Sharing data: We may share your data with third parties, including third-party service providers.
  • Security: We respect the security of your data and treat it in accordance with the law.
  • International transfer: We will not transfer your data outside of the EU.

Where we use the expression “resident” this includes patients for whom we care in our hospital facilities.

1. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT?
  1. Under data protection legislation we are required to explain to you why we collect information about you, how we intend to use that information and whether we will share your information with anyone else.

  2. This statement applies to all relatives/carers listed as the contact/next of kin of our current residents and patients and people identified as visitors of residents/patients.

  3. We may update this statement at any time.

  4. It is important that you read this statement so that you know how and why we use information about you. It is also important that you inform us of any changes to your personal information we hold about you so that the information which we hold is accurate and current.

2. WHO ARE WE?
  1. We are Barchester Healthcare Homes Limited (Barchester), a company registered in England and Wales under company number 02849519 and with our registered office at 3rd Floor, The Aspect, Finsbury Square, London, United Kingdom, EC2A 1AS.
  2. Barchester is a "data controller" in respect of the information we hold about you. This means that we are responsible for deciding how we use that personal information about you.
3. OUR DATA PROTECTION OFFICER
  1. Our Data Protection Officer is responsible for overseeing what we do with your information and monitoring our compliance with data protection laws.
  2. Our Data Protection Officer is Michael O’Reilly who is assisted by our Information Manager Julia Atherton. If you have any concerns or questions about our use of your personal data, you can contact them by writing to dpo@barchester.com
4. TYPES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE USE
  1. We are collecting information about you which enables us to contact you if necessary.  This includes:

    1. your name;

    2. contact details (such as your address, personal email address and telephone number);

    3. your relationship to our resident/patient;

    4. details of any visits you may have made or meetings you may have attended in relation to our resident/patient;

    5. payment information, such as credit/debit card numbers, security code numbers and other related billing information necessary to process payments which may be required in order to provide your relative with the care;

    6. details of any communications we have with you;

    7. images of you from our CCTV footage;

    8. and because circumstances are variable and change with time there may in some instances be situations outside the list above.  We will update this Privacy Notice where we become aware of other uses of your data.

    2. Special categories of personal data

    1. Some of the information which we collect about you may be “special categories of personal data”. Special categories of data require a greater level of protection. We may collect this type of data about you in CCTV images, which may reveal information about your religious beliefs, racial or ethnic origin and health.

5. SOURCE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
  1. The above information which we collect about you will be obtained via our resident/patient, via our resident/patient's other care providers or directly from you.
6. HOW AND WHY WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
  1. The information that we use is required for a number of different purposes, each of which has a "lawful basis". In accordance with the data protection laws, we need a "lawful basis" for collecting and using information about you. There are a variety of different lawful bases for using personal data which are set out in the data protection laws
  2. We have set out below the purposes for which we collect and use your personal data, along with the lawful bases we rely on to do so.
 

Why we use your information

Our lawful basis for using your information

Communication. We use the personal information of contacts/next of kin to communicate with you when a patient/relative where necessary in connection with issues arising in relation to the resident’s/patient’s care.

Legal obligation: It is necessary in order to comply with our legal obligations to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of our residents and patients.

Legitimate interests: It is necessary for the legitimate interests of Barchester and our residents/patients to hold and maintain accurate contact/next of kin details.

Vital interests: It is necessary for the protection of the vital interests of our residents/patients.

In order to maintain accurate records. We may use your personal information, such as in relation to communications we have had with you and meetings you may have attended about our resident/patient, in order to maintain an accurate record of our care and treatment of our resident/patient.

Legal obligation: It is necessary in order to comply with our legal obligations to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of our residents and patients.

Legitimate interests: It is necessary for the legitimate interests of Barchester and our residents/patients to hold and maintain accurate records of care and treatment.

Processing payments. We may use your personal information in the event that you make payments to us for services that we provide to residents/patients.

Legitimate interests: It is necessary pursuant to our legitimate commercial interests (and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those) in the effective running of our business.

Complaints: Handling any complaints made or where concerns are raised.

It is necessary to perform our contract with your relative.

It is necessary for our legitimate interests (where they are not overridden by your rights).

It is necessary to meet legal / regulatory obligations.

It is necessary for us to provide your relatiive with healthcare as a resident.*

Safeguarding and regulation: We use your personal data for the purpose of safeguarding and regulation of care.

It is necessary to perform our contract with your relative.

It is necessary to meet legal / regulatory obligations.

It is necessary for our legitimate interests (where they are not overridden by your rights).

It is necessary for us to provide your relative with healthcare as a resident.*

Improving our services:  We may ask you to voluntarily complete relative surveys to help us improve the services which we provide to you.

It is necessary for our legitimate interests (where they are not overridden by your rights).

It is necessary for us to provide your relative or representative healthcare as a resident and for the management of health and social care services.*

Security: We may need to capture images of you as part of our security processes such as use of CCTV footage.

Legitimate interests: It is necessary for our legitimate interests and those of our staff, residents, patients and visitors to ensure our premises are safe and secure.

Public information: Processing relates to personal data you have made public.*

 * This is an additional lawful basis which we need to rely on in order to use special categories of data such as health information

7. COMPLYING WITH DATA PROTECTION LAW
  1. We will comply with data protection law. At the heart of data protection laws are the "data protection principles" which say that the personal information we hold about you must be:
    1. used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way;

    2. collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any way that is incompatible with those purposes;

    3. relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes;

    4. accurate and kept up to date;

    5. kept only as long as necessary for the purposes we have told you about; and

    6. kept securely.

8. SHARING YOUR INFORMATION
  1. We will share your personal information with third parties where required by law, where it is necessary in your role as contact/next of kin, where it is necessary for the provision of care and treatment to our residents/patients or where we have another legitimate interest in doing so.
  2. The types of third parties we may share your information with are:
    1. IT services;
    2. other organisations involved with a sale or transfer of services in which our employees are involved;
    3. emergency services, such as the Police and ambulance services;
    4. commissioners and safeguarding authorities;
    5. healthcare professionals and multi-disciplinary teams;
    6. Ministry of Justice and law enforcement agencies. There are other occasions where we may be required by law to disclose data (for example, where there is a Court Order).;
    7. our professional advisors (such as our lawyers).
9. TRANSFERRING INFORMATION OUTSIDE THE EU

1. We will not transfer your data outside of the EU.

10. CAN WE USE YOUR INFORMATION FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE?
  1. We typically will only use your personal information for the purposes for which we collect it. It is possible that we will use your information for other purposes as long as those other purposes are compatible with those set out in this policy. If we intend to do so, we will provide you with information relating to that other purpose before using it for the new purpose.
  2. We may also use your personal information for other purposes where such use is required or permitted by law.
11. STORING YOUR INFORMATION AND DELETING IT
  1. We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we have collected it, including the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. When we no longer have a lawful purpose for holding your data, we will securely destroy your personal information in accordance with our data retention policy. The relevant extract from which is:

Where we hold data of relatives for the purpose of communication with them in respect of a patient or resident or guaranteeing the payment of services, we will destroy any personal data when the relevant reason terminates, usually when the resident/patient leaves the service and all paperwork relating to that resident/patient is complete. 

  1. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
12. YOUR RIGHTS
  1. Under certain circumstances, by law you have the right to:
    1. Request access to your personal information (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
    2. Request correction of the personal information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate information we hold about you corrected.
    3. Request erasure of your personal information in certain circumstances. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal information where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal information where you have exercised your right to object to processing (see below).
    4. Object to processing of your personal information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) or public interest as our lawful basis for processing and there is something about your particular situation which leads you to object to processing on this ground. You also have the right to object if we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes.
    5. Request the restriction of processing of your personal information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of personal information about you, for example if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.
    6. Request the transfer of your personal information to another party in certain circumstances.
  2. If you want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of your personal information, object to the processing of your personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of your personal information to another party, please contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@barchester.com
13. AUTOMATED DECISION MAKING
  1. You will not be subject to decisions that will have a significant impact on you based solely on automated decision-making.
14. RIGHT TO COMPLAIN TO THE ICO
  1. You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (the "ICO") if you are not satisfied with the way we use your information. You can contact the ICO by writing to Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
15. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY STATEMENT
  1. We reserve the right to update this privacy statement at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy statement when we make any substantial updates. We may also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal information.

 

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