Sensitive personal data (including information relating to your health) will only be disclosed to third parties in accordance with this Privacy Policy. That includes third parties involved with your treatment or care, or in accordance with UK laws and guidelines of appropriate professional bodies. Where applicable, it may be disclosed to any person or organisation who may be responsible for meeting your treatment expenses or their agents. It may also be provided to external service providers and regulatory bodies (unless you object) for the purpose of clinical audit to ensure the highest standards of care and record keeping are maintained.
Hospitals / Clinics working with us: We share clinical information about you with hospitals / clinics as we think necessary for your treatment. We remain the data controller of your personal data, either alone or jointly with us and will be required to maintain their own records in accordance with Data Protection Laws and applicable clinical confidential guidelines and retention periods. Where that is the case, we may refer you to that hospital / clinic to exercise your rights over your data. Our contracts with hospital / clinics require them to cooperate with those requests. In all circumstances, those hospitals / clinics will only process your personal data for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise notified to you.
External practitioners: If we refer you externally for treatment, we will share with the person or organisation that we refer you to, the clinical and administrative information we consider necessary for that referral. It will always be clear when we do this.
Your GP: If when treating you we believe it to be clinically advisable, we may also share information about your treatment with your GP. You can ask us not to do this, in which case we will respect that request if we are legally permitted to do so, but you should be aware that it can be potentially very dangerous and/or detrimental to your health to deny your GP full information about your medical history, and we strongly advise against it.
Your insurer: We share with your medical insurer information about your treatment, its clinical necessity and its cost, only if they are paying for all or part of your treatment with us. We provide only the information to which they are entitled. If you raise a complaint or a claim we may be required to share personal data with your medical insurer for the purposes of investigating any complaint/claim.
The NHS: If you are referred to us for treatment by the NHS, we will share the details of your treatment with the part of the NHS that referred you to us, as necessary to perform, process and report back on that treatment.
Medical regulators: We may be requested – and in some cases can be required – to share certain information (including personal data and sensitive personal data) about you and your care with medical regulators such as the General Medical Council or the Nursing and Midwifery Council, for example if you make a complaint, or the conduct of a medical professional involved in your treatment is alleged to have fallen below the appropriate standards and the regulator wishes to investigate. We will ensure that we do so within the framework of the law and with due respect for your privacy.
From time to time we may also make information available on the basis of necessity for the provision of healthcare, but subject always to patient confidentiality.
In an emergency and if you are incapacitated, we may also process your personal data (including sensitive personal data) or make personal data available to third parties on the basis of protecting your ‘vital interest’ (i.e. your life or your health).
We will use your personal data in order to monitor the outcome of your treatment by us and any treatment associated with your care, including any NHS treatment.
We participate in national audits and initiatives to help ensure that patients are getting the best possible outcomes from their treatment and care. The highest standards of confidentiality will be applied to your personal data in accordance with Data Protection Laws and confidentiality. Any publishing of this data will be in anonymised, statistical form. Anonymous or aggregated data may be used by us, or disclosed to others, for research or statistical purposes.