NHS Patients

Amethyst works in close partnership with the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH). To provide NHS patients with Gamma Knife radiosurgery treatment we confidentially process personal information on behalf of UCLH (the data controllers) in accordance with their specifications and requirements. Patient notes are shared between both parties to ensure a full and accurate record of the treatment. In addition personal data may be used for administrative purposes including.

• waiting list management
• performance against national targets
• activity monitoring
• local clinical audit
• production of datasets to submit for commissioning purposes and national collections

All health and adult social care providers are subject to the statutory duty under section 251B of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to share information about a patient for their direct care. This duty is subject to both the common law duty of confidence and GDPR. Personal data on patients is processed for the performance of a task carrier out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority (Article 6(1)(e) and for medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems.

Private Patients

As a patient of Amethyst UK, your treatment will be provided by a clinician who is a medical practitioner. For ease of reference, we refer to them simply as ‘clinicians’ throughout this Privacy Notice. Those clinicians make decisions about what information is collected about you, and may maintain their own set of medical records in relation to the treatment that they provide. They are a Data Controller in respect of your personal information which they hold within those records, meaning that they must comply with the data protection legislation and relevant guidance when handling your personal information. We act as a data processor on behalf of the clinicians. To the extent relevant to the clinicians practice, you can expect them (including their medical secretaries) to handle your information in line with this Privacy Notice. This includes using your personal information as set out in more detail below.

What personal information do we collect and use from patients?

We will use “special categories of personal information” (otherwise known as “special categories of data”) as we need to use information about your health in order to treat you. The personal information we hold about you may include the following:

• Name
• Contact details, such as postal address, email address and telephone number
• Financial information, such as credit card and medical insurance details used to pay us
• Occupation
• Emergency contact details, including next of kin
• Background referral details

The special categories of personal information we hold about you may include the following:

• Details of your current or former physical or mental health. This may include information about any healthcare you have received (both from QSRC directly and other healthcare providers such as GPs, hospitals (private and/or NHS)) or need, including about clinic and hospital visits and medicines administered.
• Details of services you have received from us
• Details of your nationality, race and/or ethnicity
• Details of your religion
• Details of any genetic data or biometric data relating to you

The confidentiality of your medical information is important to us. We make every effort to prevent unauthorised access to and use of information relating to your health. In doing so, Amethyst complies with UK data protection law, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR, and all applicable medical confidentiality guidelines issued by professional bodies including, but not limited to, the General Medical Council.

How do we collect your information?

We may collect personal information from a number of different sources including, but not limited to:

From other healthcare organisations

Our patients will usually receive healthcare from other organisations in addition to QSRC, and so in order to provide you with the best treatment possible we may have to collect personal information about you from other organisations. These may include:

• Medical records from UCLH
• Medical records from your GP
• Medical records from your clinician (including their medical secretaries)
• Medical records from other private healthcare organisation

Medical records include information about your diagnosis, clinic and hospital visits and medicines administered.

From third parties

As detailed in the previous section, it is often necessary to seek information from other healthcare organisations. We may also collect information about you from third parties when:

• You are referred to us for the provision of services including healthcare services
• We liaise with your family
• We liaise with your insurance policy provider
• We deal with experts (including medical experts) and other service providers about services you have received or are receiving from us
• We liaise with your current or former employer, health professional or other treatment or benefit provider

What are the purposes for which your information is used?

We may process your information for a number of different purposes, but must have a legal justification to do so. The particular justification will depend on the purpose of the proposed use of your data. When the information that we process is classed as “special category of personal information”, we must have a specific additional legal justification in order to use it as proposed.

Generally we will rely on the following legal justifications,

• for the performance of a task carrier out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority and for medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems.
• For the purposes of providing you with healthcare. We will rely on this for activities such as supporting your medical treatment or care and other benefits, supporting your doctor, nurse, carer or other healthcare professional and providing other services to you.
• We have an appropriate business need to process your personal information and such business need does not cause harm to you. We will rely on this for activities such as quality assurance, maintaining our business records, developing and improving our products and services and monitoring outcomes.
• We have a legal or regulatory obligation to use such personal information.
• We need to use such personal information to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights.
• You have provided your consent to our use of your personal information.

You will find details of our legal grounds for each of our processing purposes below. We have set out individually those purposes for which we will use your personal information, and under each one we set out the legal justifications, as well as an ‘additional’ legal ground for special categories of personal information. This is because we have to demonstrate additional legal grounds where we are using information which relates to a person’s healthcare, as we will be the majority of the times we use your personal information.

Purpose 1: To provide you with healthcare and related services

Clearly, the reason you come to us is to provide you with healthcare, and so we have to use your personal information for that.

Legal grounds:

• Providing you with healthcare and related services

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

• We need to use the data in order to provide healthcare services to you
• The use is necessary to protect your vital interests where you are physically or legally incapable of giving consent

Purpose 2: For clinical audit/research purposes

Clinical audit

Amethyst may process your personal data for the purposes of local clinical audit – i.e. an audit carried by the clinical team for the purposes of assessing outcomes for patients and identifying improvements which could be made for the future. We are allowed on the basis of a legitimate interest and the public interest in statistical and scientific research, and with appropriate safeguards in place. You are, however, entitled to object to us using your personal data for this purpose, and as a result of which we would need to stop doing so. If you would like to raise such an objection then please contact us.

Clinical research

Amethyst is committed to research and dissemination of knowledge. Research is a key focus and the trials we are currently designing and conducting will provide invaluable data to optimise the methods currently used to plan and deliver Gamma Knife Radiosurgery as well as to assess its effectiveness and safety.

We will share your personal data only to the extent that it is necessary to do so in assisting research and as permitted by law. Some research projects and/or registries have received statutory approval such that consent may not be required in order to use your personal data. In those circumstances, your personal data will be shared on the basis that:

Legal grounds:

• We have a legitimate interest in helping with medical research and have put appropriate safeguards in place to protect your privacy

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

• The processing is necessary in the public interest for statistical and scientific research purposes

In the event that consent is required we will request this from you which you may decline.

Purpose 3: Communicating with any other individual that you ask us to update about your care and updating other healthcare professionals about your care.

In addition, other healthcare professionals or organisations may need to know about your treatment in order for them to provide you with safe and effective care, and so we may need to share your personal information with them.

Legal grounds:

• Our providing you with healthcare and other related services
• We have a legitimate interest in ensuring that other healthcare professionals who are routinely involved in your care have a full picture of your treatment

Additional legal ground for special categories of personal information:

• We need to use the data in order to provide healthcare services to you
• The use is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest under UK law
• The use is necessary in order for us to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights

If you are a private or self funding patient, as part of a UK-wide programme to improve the public’s access to information on the quality and outcome of private healthcare, we may share some of your personal data (NHS Number in England and Wales, CHI Number in Scotland or Health and Care Number in Northern Ireland) with The Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN). PHIN then sends this Number to the relevant national information authority (for example NHS Digital in England) which links it to national hospital data and mortality data. The linked information, with your personal data removed, is then provided to PHIN to measure quality of care, check for adverse events after discharge, such as unplanned readmissions to hospital, emergency transfers between hospitals, or deaths following treatment. Additionally, the records we send to PHIN will include your postcode to enable statistical processing. PHIN, like us, will apply the highest standards of confidentiality to personal information in accordance with data protection laws and the duty of confidentiality. Any information that is published by PHIN will always be in anonymised statistical form and will not be shared or analysed for any purpose other than those stated. Further information about how PHIN uses information, including its Privacy Notice, is available at phin.org.uk.

Purpose 4: Communicating with you and resolving any concerns or complaints that you might have. 

From time to time, patients may raise concerns, or even complaints and we take those communications very seriously. It is important that we resolve such matters fully and properly, and so we will need to use your personal information in order to do so.

Legal grounds:

• Our providing you with healthcare and other related services
• Our having an appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

• The use is necessary for the provision of healthcare or treatment pursuant to a contract with a health professional
• The use is necessary in order for us to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights

Purpose 5: For account settlement purposes (Private patients)

We will use your personal information in order to ensure that your account and billing is fully accurate and up-to-date

Legal grounds:

• Our providing you healthcare and other related services
• Our having an appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you

Additional legal grounds for special categories of personal information:

• We need to use the data in order to provide healthcare services to you
• The use is necessary in order for us to establish, exercise or defend our legal rights

Purpose 6: Complying with our legal or regulatory obligations, and defending or exercising our legal rights

As a provider of healthcare, we are subject to a wide range of legal and regulatory responsibilities which is not possible to list fully here. We may be required by law or by regulators to provide personal information, and in which case we will have a legal responsibility to do so. From time to time, QSRC and its clinicians may also be the subject of complaints or legal actions and in order to fully investigate and respond to those actions, it is necessary to access your personal information (although only to the extent that it is necessary and relevant to the subject-matter).

Legal grounds:

• The use is necessary in order for us to comply with our legal obligations

Additional legal ground for special categories of personal information:

• We need to use the data in order for others to provide informed healthcare services to you
• The use is necessary for reasons of the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems
• The use is necessary for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims

Purpose 7: Managing our business operations such as maintaining accounting records, analysis of financial results, internal audit requirements, receiving professional advice

In order to do this, we will not need to use your special categories of personal information and so we have not identified the additional ground to use your information for this purpose.

Legal grounds:

• Our having an appropriate business need to use your information which does not overly prejudice you

How long do we keep personal information for?

We will only keep your personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to fulfill the relevant purposes set out in this Privacy Notice and in order to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

How will we communicate with you?

In order to communicate with you, we are likely to do this by telephone (including mobile), email, and/or post. If we contact you using the telephone number(s) which you have provided (landline and/or mobile), and you are not available which results in the call being directed to a voicemail and/or answering service, we may leave a voice message on your voicemail and/or answering service as appropriate.

• We will contact you to arrange pre-treatment, treatment and follow up appointments
• We may contact you regarding patient surveys by post which are for the purpose of improving our service or monitoring outcomes and are not a form of marketing

Please note that although providing your mobile number and email address and stating a preference to be communicated by a particular method will be taken as an affirmative confirmation that you are happy for us to contact you in that manner, we are not relying on your consent to process your personal data in order to correspond with you about your treatment. Processing your personal data for those purposes is justified on the basis that it is necessary to provide you with healthcare services.

Surveys

We may ask you to complete a patient feedback questionnaire regarding the treatment provided to you. The survey will largely be electronic on treatment day or maybe sent post-treatment by post. This is not a form of marketing and the surveys do not try to sell you any further products or services; it is solely to gather information relating to your experience of Amethyst, for the purposes of improving the quality and safety of the services we offer to future patients. It is necessary for us to process your personal data in order to contact you with these surveys, on the basis of our appropriate business needs and to improve the quality of the healthcare services we offer. Participation in the surveys is entirely voluntary. You may also be given the opportunity to proactively opt into receiving a call back to further discuss your survey responses. These are all matters entirely for you.

Who do we share your information with?

From time to time, we may share your personal information with third parties that might include

• University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (data controller for NHS patient information) for whom we are a data processor
• A doctor, nurse, carer or any other healthcare professional involved in your treatment
• Other members of support staff involved in the delivery of your care, like receptionists and porters
• Anyone that you ask us to communicate with or provide as an emergency contact, for example your next of kin or carer
• NHS organisations,
• Other private sector healthcare providers
• Your GP
• Your clinician (including their medical secretaries)
• Third parties who assist in the administration of your healthcare, such as insurance companies
• Private Healthcare Information Network
• Our regulators, like the Care Quality Commission
• The police and other third parties where reasonably necessary for the prevention or detection of crime
• Our insurers
• Selected third parties in connection with any sale, transfer or disposal of our business

We may communicate with these third parties in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, email, post, fax and telephone.