Skip to content

Your data and privacy

On this page

Your personal information is very important to you and to us. The way we collect, keep and use information about you has developed with technology.

If you have any data protection enquiries then please contact information governance.

We place great importance in dealing with your personal data in the strictest of confidence.

This applies to manual and computer records and conversations about patients' treatment. Everyone working for the National Health Service (NHS) is under a legal duty to keep patients' information, held in whatever form, confidential.

Who is responsible for data protection at WSFT?

There are a number of roles within the trust that have responsibility for protecting the information you provide us with.

  • Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO): Nicola Cottington
  • Caldicott Guardian: Dr Ravi Ayyamuthu
  • Data Protection Officer (DPO): Emily Graham, DPO@wsh.nhs.uk

All our staff are required to access only the information they need to provide you with the care and treatment you need. They must also keep it safe and secure at all times.

If you would like to raise a complaint or a data protection concern, please contact the complaints team in accordance with the Complaints and Concerns Handling Policy.

What is personal identifiable data

Personal Identifiable Data (often known as PID) is any information that is personal to you and would identify you as an individual.

PID we hold about you includes your:

  • name
  • date of birth
  • address
  • NHS Number
  • medical details
  • genetic Information (such as blood samples).

What do we do with your information?

Most importantly, we use your information to provide you with the care and treatment you need.

We may need to use your information to help us protect the health of the public for example; monitoring of certain infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.

We may also use your information to:

  • ensure the trust runs efficiently, plans for the future, trains its staff, pays its bills and can account for its actions
  • investigate complaints, incidents and concerns to ensure we are providing the best possible care
  • benefit clinical research
  • to defend a legal claim or where a court instructs us to.
  • protect your vital interests or the interests of any individuals when you are unable to give consent.

You may need to receive care or equipment from other providers therefore we would need to share your information so that they can provide you with the necessary equipment or care and treatment you need.

In certain circumstances we are required by law to share your information with other organisations and authorities.

There are occasions where we would like to use your information for reasons other than stated above.

This could mean providing your information to third parties who require it to test new technologies or providing your information to assess the services we currently provide so that we can improve them.

If we require your information for these purposes, we need your explicit consent to be able to use it. This is because it is your information and we must have your consent to use it for any purpose other than those stated above.

Please be assured that your care will not be affected if you do not provide consent for your information to be used for anything other than your direct care.

If you do give your consent but later change your mind, then you have the right to withdraw your consent.

Who might we share your information with?

Below is a list of some of the types of organisations we may share your information with:

  • GP practices
  • 0ther NHS trusts
  • ICB/ ICS
  • police
  • community teams
  • county/borough councils
  • social care providers
  • equipment providers
  • regulatory bodies
  • IT providers
  • support service
  • registry offices.
  • coroners
  • funeral directors
  • medical schools
  • NHS Digital
  • cancer registries
  • Health Research Authority (if you have consented to participate in clinical research)
  • translation/Interpreter/language services
  • Public Health England
  • other healthcare providers

If you were asked to give consent for your information to be shared and you no longer wish for this to happen, you can withdraw your consent at any time.

You can also request the following:

  • to have information you believe to be incorrect, corrected (Right to Rectification)
  • to have your information erased (Right to Erasure)
  • the processing of your information to be restricted (Right to Restrict Processing).

If this is something you wish to do then please contact:

Emily Graham
Data Protection Officer
West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust
Hardwick Lane
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP33 2QZ

Email: DPO@wsh.nhs.uk

Access your medical records

Find out how to access your medical records

Privacy notices

A privacy notice is a statement that describes how West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust collects, uses, retains and discloses personal information. View our privacy notices listed below: