Please refer to our Privacy Notice for general details of how we process your information. This page only includes supplementary information regarding information use during the pandemic. You can read our privacy notice here.

To support the national response to the pandemic, the Government invoked legislation requiring public sector organisations to process (including use and sharing) personal data for purposes consistent with the response.

The main piece of legislation that is being used is the Control of Patient Information Regulations 2002 (COPI). In summary, this required our Trust to process data where the following applied:

A COVID-19 purpose includes but is not limited to the following:
  • Understanding covid and risks to public health, trends in covid and such risks, and controlling and preventing the spread of covid and such risks
  • Processing to support the NHS Test and Trace programme
  • Identifying and understanding information about patients or potential patients with or at risk of covid, information about incidents of patient exposure or death from covid and the management of patients with or at risk of covid. This includes locating, contacting, screening, flagging and monitoring patients, and collecting information and providing services in relation to testing, diagnosis, self-isolation, fitness to work, treatment, medical and social interventions and recovery from covid
  • Understanding information about patient access to health services and adult social care services, the need for wider care of patients and vulnerable groups as a direct or indirect result of covid, and the availability and capacity of those services.
  • Monitoring and managing the response to covid by health and social care bodies and the government, including providing information to the public about covid and capacity, medicines, equipment, supplies, services and the workforce within the health services and adult social care services.
  • Delivering services to patients, clinicians, the health services and adult social care services workforce and the public about and in connection with COVID-19, including the provision of information, fit notes and the provision of healthcare and adult social care services
  • Research and planning in relation to COVID-19

Click here for further information on the instructions to organisations for processing data in support of the national response to the pandemic.

To find out more about how our Trust and the NHS may be processing data to support the national response to the pandemic, please visit:

https://digital.nhs.uk/coronavirus

https://digital.nhs.uk/coronavirus/coronavirus-covid-19-response-informationgovernance-hub

Under the COPI regulations, organisations across Greater Manchester have agreed to share patient information into a single care record, ensuring that no matter which health or care professional is caring for you, or in whichever borough of Greater Manchester you are receiving care or treatment, they have your most up to date information, so they can treat or care for you correctly.

The GMCR is not a replication of all your data held by all health and care organisations you are currently open to. It is demographics, medications, allergies, and important information that a treating clinician may need to know only.

Only authorised members of staff are allowed to view your information, and their access is audited to make sure the access was necessary, justified and proportionate.

Click here for further information about the Greater Manchester Care Record.

Further assurance work will be completed to ensure the GMCR can continue to operate lawfully, before the expiry date of the COPI notice (currently 31st March 2022).

We will record your vaccination status as part of your clinical record. It may also share this information with the National Immunisation and Vaccination Service (NIVS), which ensures that national records are up to date.

Click here for more information on the national use of data to support the vaccination programme.

To support the national response to the pandemic, including the national and regional lockdowns, we changed the way some of our services are delivered. For some services this is a temporary change, for some this may continue in the future.

These changes involved the use of homeworking and new technology (for example conducting appointments online). Where this is the case, our staff are provided with guidance and instruction on maintaining confidentiality and keeping data secure and safe.

Where new technology has been utilised, we have undertaken thorough clinical and data protection risk assessments.

Please refer to our Staff Privacy Notice for further information about how the Trust may be processing the data we hold about you as an employee differently. Our staff privacy notice is available on our staff intranet.