Privacy Notice: COVID-19

Data Controller

The Barn Surgery

Data Protection Officer

Dr Ian Pidgeon, Partner

General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) At risk patients data collection Version 3

Purpose: The objective of this collection is on an ongoing basis to identify patients registered at General Practices who may be:

• clinically extremely vulnerable if they contract COVID-19
• at moderate or high risk of complications from flu or COVID19

This General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) data will be extracted weekly and be used to assist in producing a weekly update of the Shielded Patient List (SPL). The data, as specified by the DPN, supports the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020 from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Organisations that are in scope of the notice are legally required to comply. 

Legal Basis: Sections 259(1)(a), 259(5) and 259(8) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Where a patient’s record contains a defined long-term medical condition, which poses a COVID-19 risk and/or a condition/code which identifies a patient as being of moderate or high risk of complications from flu/COVID-19, data will be extracted for

Processor: NHS Digital or NHS X

During this period of emergency, opt-outs will not generally apply to the data used to support the Covid-19 outbreak, due to the public interest in sharing information. This includes National Data OptOuts. However in relation to the Summary Care Record, existing choices will be respected. Where data is used and shared under these laws your right to have personal data erased will also not apply. It may also take us longer to respond to Subject Access Requests (SARs), Freedom of Information requests (FOIs) and new opt out requests whilst we focus our efforts on responding to the outbreak. In order to look after your health and care needs we may share your confidential patient information included health and care records with clinical and non-clinical staff in other health and care providers, for example neighbouring GP practices, hospitals and NHS 111. We may also use the details we have to send public health messages to you, either by phone, text message or email. During this period of emergency we may offer you a consultation via telephone or video conferencing. By accepting the invitation and entering the consultation you are consenting to this. Your personal/confidential patient information will be safeguarded in the same way it would with any other consultation. We will also be required to share personal confidential patient information with health and care organisations and other bodies engaged in disease surveillance for the purposes of protecting public health, providing healthcare services to the public and monitoring and managing the outbreak. Further information about how health and care data is being used and shared by other NHS and social care organisations in a variety of ways to support the Covid-19 response is here. NHS England and Improvement and the NHSX have developed a single, secure store to gather data from across the health and care system to information the Covid-19 response. This includes data already collected by NHS England, NHS Improvement, Public Health England and NHS Digital. New data will include 999 call data, data about hospital occupancy and A&E capacity data as well as data provided by patient themselves. All the data held in the platform is subject to strict controls that meet the requirements of data protection legislation. In such circumstances where you tell us you’re experiencing Covid-19 symptoms we may need to collect specific health data about you. Where we need to do so, we will not collect more information than we require and we will ensure that any information collected is treated with the appropriate safeguards. We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time so please review it frequently. The date at the top of this page will be amended each time this notice is updated.