Security & Privacy for patients

You may be a patient who has heard of Health Diagnostics through one of your health and social care providers who may be using our digital tools and you want to know who we are and what we do.

Health Diagnostics provide digital tools and services to health and social care organisations or professionals for the purpose of inviting patients into screening programmes and to conduct and communicate risk assessments to identify risks of cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes

What does Health Diagnostics software do?

We build digital systems to support health and social care organisations and professionals to identify patients who are eligible for public health programmes and services. We also provide systems that are used to support health professionals to manage population health programmes and hold face to face lifestyle consultations with you for the purpose of promoting a healthier lifestyle .

Why do we need your information?

We need access to some of it so you can be informed about and invited to take part in some public health lifestyle or screening programmes. A health professional would also use our software with you so as to identify the possible chances of you developing conditions such as cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes.

Patient Demographic Service FHIR API

If you are receiving care from a health or care organisation, that organisation may share your NHS number with other organisations providing your care. This is so that the health and care organisations are using the same number to identify you whilst providing your care. By using the same number the health and care organisations can work together more closely to improve your care and support.

Your NHS number is accessed through an NHS Digital service called the Personal Demographic Service (PDS). A health or care organisation sends basic information such as your name, address and date of birth to the PDS in order to find your NHS number. Once retrieved from the PDS, the NHS number is stored in our case management system. These data are retained in line with our record retention policies and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, Government record retention regulations and best practice.

We will share information only to provide health and care professionals directly involved in your care to access to the most up-to-date information about you. Access to information is strictly controlled, based on the role of the professional, and where the user has a direct care relationship with you.

The use of joined up information across health and social care brings many benefits. One specific example where this will be the case is the discharge of patients into social care. Delays in discharge (commonly known as bed blocking) can occur because details of social care involvement are not readily available to the staff on the hospital ward. The hospital does not know who to contact to discuss the ongoing care of a patient. The linking of social care and health information via the NHS number will help hospital staff quickly identify if social care support is already in place and who the most appropriate contact is. Ongoing care can be planned earlier in the process, because hospital staff will know who to talk to.

You have the right to object to the processing of your NHS number in this way. This will not stop you from receiving care, but will result in the benefits outlined above not being realised. To help you decide, we will discuss with you how this may affect our ability to provide you with care, and any other options that you have.

If you wish to opt-out from the use of your NHS number in this way, you can contact us by  emailing enquiries@healthdiagnostics.co.uk

How do Health Diagnostics make sure data is secure?

We meet the highest standards of data security required by the NHS and our data security policies and procedures are externally audited every year for full compliance. Our credentials in this respect are detailed in the Security and Privacy area of our website.

Any data about you that is transmitted (for example, to your patient record) and stored is done so electronically in an encrypted form using the highest NHS standards. The strict electronic controls that Health Diagnostics impose ensure that only people working within health and social care organisations that are authorised to see your data can do so.

We store data at our secure premises in Chester, UK as well as in Microsoft’s secure Azure cloud services data centre in Cardiff, UK.

Our digital tools do not make decisions based solely on automated processing or profiling.

What personal information do we use?

The information we obtain form your healthcare providers, such as your GP Practice includes:

  • Your full name
  • Your date of birth
  • Your NHS number
  • Your full address
  • Your telephone numbers, home and mobile
  • Your email address
  • Your ethnicity
  • Your sex

We may also collect some recent test information, if available, such as blood pressure or cholesterol measurements.

Health Diagnostics only receive this information about you because your health care provider could not carry out the service you are entitled to without it.

Who has access to my information?

Our digital services include electronic controls, conforming to the highest NHS standards, so that the only people who have access to your information are the people who must offer you the opportunity to attend a public health service and the people who will perform the service should you attend.

There may be a requirement for employees of Health Diagnostics to see data for the purpose of maintenance or if required as part of an audit. Any access to data by our employees is controlled by strict governance processes and auditing. This ensures your data remains safe.

Do you sell my data to other organisations, such as insurance companies?

Absolutely not. We support bona fide health and social care authorisations only for the purpose of your personal health care.

How can I find out what information you hold about me?

If you wish to know if and what information we hold about you, please use our subject access request process. The process can be found here

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