This notice explains why nursing records are kept, how your information may be stored, how it is kept safe and confidential and your rights in relation to this.
Why we collect information about you
Health care professionals who provide you with care are required by law to maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you receive. These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare and help protect your safety.
Data is collected and held for the purpose of providing healthcare services to students, this includes monitoring the quality of care provided. In carrying out this role, the Student Health Advisor and or the locum nurse (locum)may collect information about you that helps her to respond to your queries and or helps to secure specialist services. This data may be in written form and or digital form.
Details we collect about you
The records the Student Health Advisor and or the locum nurse may hold about you include the following: your name, address and date of birth, emergency contact details, Tripos, college year, and matriculation term and year. They may also contain more sensitive information about your health and information such as the outcomes of your nursing assessment and any contact you have had with the Student Health Advisor and or locum such as appointments and consultations.
Notes, letters, reports, and emails relating to your care or about your health, details about your treatment and care, results of investigations and or tests and relevant information from other health professional are also held as are emails relating to your care or health.
How your information is kept safe and confidential
The health records the Student Health Advisor or locum uses maybe electronic, on paper or a mixture of both. A combination of working practices and technology are used to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Your records are backed up securely. The Student Health Advisor and or locum ensures that information held is kept in secure locations is protected by appropriate security and access is restricted to the Student Health Advisor. The external data processors used have their own security arrangements in place. Rushcliff provide these. Further details can be found here https://www.rushcliff.com/hosted.php
The Student Health Advisor is committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with;
- Data Protection Act 1998
- Human Rights Act
- Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
- GDPR 2018
- All applicable legislation
The Student Health Advisor and or locum will only ever use or pass on information about you if it is reasonably believed that others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. Information will not be disclosed to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (such as risk of serious harm to yourself or others or where the law requires this information to be passed on). You can object to your personal information being shared with other healthcare providers but you should be aware that this may in some instances, affect your care, as important information about your health might not be available to healthcare staff in other organizations. If this limits the treatment that you can receive this will be explained to at the time you object.
To ensure you receive the best possible care your records are used to facilitate the care you receive. Information held about you may also be used to help protect the health of the public and or other students, for instance during an outbreak of a communicable disease but not limited to an outbreak of covid-19, norovirus, scarlet fever and meningitis. During such outbreaks, the Student Health Advisor and or locum may consult the University Advisory Group on Communicable Diseases and or Public Health England or other statutory bodies.
Sharing information in the interest of the College and the student.
At the start of your time at Homerton College, your consent will be sought to share your photo ID and specific health information if you are diabetic, epileptic and or carry an adrenalin auto injector. This information is shared with the Porters’ Lodge and the Catering Department if you are diabetic and or carry an adrenaline auto injector; this is so that during a first aid emergency you can be easily identified. If you are epileptic, this information will be shared with the Porters’ lodge. You have the right not to consent but you need to be aware that this may affect the first aid care you receive.
Identifying Risk
Database searches are carried out at least annually to identify students affected by certain conditions and or disabilities that have been declared on their electronic health questionnaires. This is so that the Student Health Advisor and or locum can contact those students and provide health promotion advice and invite those students to attend the health Centre for further assessment of their condition and their potential needs whilst a student of Homerton College.
Remote consulting
A variety of platforms are used such as Zoom, Twilio and What’s App and landline and mobile telephone are used in Remote consulting,
The following measures are taken to try and ensure the security and confidentiality of each Zoom or Twilio session:
- A new meeting link is created for each session, with details emailed to you shortly beforehand. Previous links are deleted after use.
Please note:
- It is not permissible to record or publicise the content of sessions or share them with a third party.
- Whilst we take all the precautions we reasonably can, we cannot completely eliminate the risk of malicious hacking of communications. As such absolute confidentiality of online communications cannot be guaranteed’
Zoom privacy policy can be found here https://zoom.us/privacy/, Twilio security statement can be found here Twilio Privacy Statement and What’s App security statement can be found here https://www.whatsapp.com/security/
Safeguarding
To ensure that safeguarding matters are managed appropriately access to identifiable information will be shared in some limited circumstances where it is legally required for the safety of the individuals concerned. The College’s safeguarding policy and procedures will be followed.
Record Retention
Student records are managed in line with the RCN recommendation for the retention of nursing records, currently 8 years. Individual nursing records deleted 8 years after you have left Homerton College.
Access to your Information:
Everybody has the right to see or have a copy of data held in the Health Centre that can identify you, with some exceptions. You do not need to give a reason to see your data. If you want to access your data, you just make a written request; further information can be found on the Homerton website. Under special circumstances, some information may be withheld. The College may charge a reasonable fee for the administration of this request. If you wish to have a copy of the information held about, you please contact the Student Health Advisor in the first instance.
Change of details:
It is important that you tell the Student Health Advisor and or locum if any of your details such as you name or address have changed so that your records can be kept as accurate and up to date as possible.
Mobile telephone number:
The Student Health Advisor and or locum may use your mobile number to send you reminders about your appointments, to provide you with information, or to check on your condition if you are in hospital. Please let the Student Health Advisor know if you do not wish to receive communication on your mobile.
Notification:
Homerton College is registered with the Information Commissioner. The person responsible for monitoring compliance with relevant legislation in relation to protection of personal information is the Data Protection Lead. (dartaprotection@homerton.cam.ac.uk)
Complaints:
If you have concerns or are unhappy about any of the services provided by the Student Health Advisor and or locum please contact the Student Health Advisor in the first instance, as often concerns can be dealt with informally. If concerns remain after contact with the Student Health Advisor, further issues can be reported to the Senior Tutor.
Duty of Candour:
As a regulated Health care professional the student health advisor and any locums follow the duty of candour further details can be found here The professional duty of candour - The Nursing and Midwifery Council (nmc.org.uk)
Review and changes to this statement:
This statement replaces the Homerton Health Centre statements on Confidentiality, Information Sharing and Complaints procedure.
This statement is kept under review. Last review march 2022
Further Information:
https://www.rcn.org.uk/get-help/rcn-advice/record-keeping
https://www.nmc.org.uk/standards/code/record-keeping/
https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/
