How we use your information
PSS Secure Transport will receive a call from NHS hospital or private medical organisation, only the necessary information will be collected about you, for the purpose of safe transportation while in our care. We will only ask for your medical history that is necessary for our staff to know in the event of a medical emergency.
Only healthcare professionals who are directly involved in your care will be able to access your information. PSS Secure Transport will only share information to any person directly involved with your care as part of the referral. PSS Secure Transport will only pass on minimal information as we do not require personal data beyond your care needs.
How is data kept safe?
It is essential that patient data is kept safe and secure. In order to protect your confidential information. There are three ways that privacy is protected:
· Removing details that identify a person and taking further steps to anonymise information.
· Using an independent review process to make sure the reason for using patient data is appropriate.
· Implementing robust IT security.
Who can access patient data?
Your full patient referral record will only be seen by healthcare professionals who are directly involved in your care.
There are strict controls on how anyone else can access patient information. The purpose must be approved before anyone can use data and they are only given access to the minimum amount of data necessary.
The types of organisations that can use patient data include:
NHS providers and commissioners: Use data to monitor trends and patterns in hospital activity, to assess how care is provided, and to support local service planning.
Companies: Use data if they are partnering with the NHS to provide care and research. The NHS cannot do all of the analysis on its own, and companies may have the best expertise and technologies for making sense of large and complex data from hospitals, or for development.
How are decisions made about who can access patient data
At PSS Secure Transport only our booking office and management staff can view patient data or have responsibility for oversight about the purposes for which it can be used.
They work with others to make decisions about how to safeguard data and set the conditions under which it can be accessed.
Can I be identified from the data?
People want to know whether they could be identified when data about them is used.
Anonymised information, with identifiers removed, will be used as much as possible. Often, it is only a row of numbers and codes that can be seen. But what does anonymised really mean in practice? is it ever possible to re-identify someone?
Personally identifiable data can only be used if you give your permission or where required by law, and then only with robust safeguards
What are the risks?
· Do the benefits of using patient data outweigh the risks?
· Could something go wrong?
· What would be the impact?
· What are the consequences of not using data?
Sharing patient data will never be totally risk-free, but there must be appropriate measures in place to make any risks as low as reasonably possible. Data is anonymised wherever possible. There are audit processes to check who is accessing data, and robust procedures is in place and any breach would be reported to ICO immediately.
What choices do I have?
A new national data opt-out was introduced in May 2018, following recommendations from the National Data Guardian. People can opt out of having their confidential patient information shared for reasons beyond their individual care, for example for research and planning.