Supplementary Privacy Notice – Covid-19
This notice describes how Velindre University NHS Trust may use your information to protect you and others during the Covid-19 outbreak. It supplements our main privacy notice which is available here.
NHS Wales is facing significant pressures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and action is being taken to manage and ease the spread and impact of the outbreak. To do this we are working closely with other health and care organisations to provide the services people need as quickly and as easily as possible. In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations so that they can better support you during this outbreak.
Existing law which allows personal information to be used and shared appropriately and lawfully in a public health emergency is being used during this outbreak. Data protection processes are in place to enable us to provide the right information to the right organisations in order to ensure appropriate services can be put in place as this outbreak develops. We will ensure that any information collected, used or shared is treated with the appropriate safeguards, and subject to strict controls that meet with the requirements of data protection legislation.
Organisations which we may share your information with can include those within NHS Wales, Welsh Government, social care services, local authorities and those in the voluntary and private sectors delivering critical services to support health and care. For example, we may need to tell these organisations if you are one of the people who will need extra support e.g. you are in the group of people identified as being more vulnerable to the virus due to having existing health issues.
We want to assure you that any information that is part of your health record will only be shared if it is absolutely necessary in order to secure the best care for you. For example, we may need to share your information with neighbouring GP Practices, Hospitals and Community Pharmacies to enable them to provide you with treatment.
In circumstances where you tell us you’re experiencing Covid-19 symptoms we may need to collect specific health information about you. Where we need to do so, we will not collect more information than we need. We will be required to share limited information for the purposes of protecting public health and monitoring and managing the outbreak.
Any information used or shared during the Covid-19 outbreak will be limited to the period of the outbreak. This rapid action is only being taken due to the current Covid-19 outbreak.
Please note: It may also take us longer to respond to Individual Rights Requests whilst we focus our efforts on responding to the outbreak. We respectfully ask that if your request for information is not urgent, you consider whether your request for information could be delayed.
If you have any further queries / or would like further information, please contact the Trusts Data Protection Officer via the details contained in our main privacy notice. The following link provide further information on the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI). Further details can be found on the ICO website for the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) or visit the ICO’s Data protection and the coronavirus information hub.
We may amend this privacy notice at any time so please review it frequently – Version 1 – 25th April 2020