Patient Information - Protecting, Using and Storing

Last Updated

August 29, 2024

Personal information

Alliance Medical understands that your personal data is entrusted to us and appreciates the importance of protecting and respecting your privacy. We comply with the UK data protection legislation and with all applicable clinical confidentiality guidelines including those published from to time by the General Medical and Health and Care Professions Councils.

During your visit to one of our imaging centres, we will ask you for personal information. We will use this information so that we can give you the correct care and treatment. We may use information about you for other reasons such as to:

Help staff to review the care they provide to make sure it is of the highest standard
Review our planning and services so that we meet patients’ needs
Prepare statistics and ‘performance’ figures
Train and educate staff
Support medical research

Whenever possible we will remove details that identify you.

Diagnostic Imaging Data Set (DIDS)

Information from your diagnostic test will be submitted for inclusion in the Diagnostic Imaging Dataset. The Diagnostic Imaging Dataset (DID) is a database that holds information on the imaging tests and scans carried out on NHS patients. This will allow the Health and Social Care Information Centre to see how different tests are used across the country.

The following information is submitted:

Information about the diagnostic test
Your NHS number
Your date of birth
Your postcode

Nothing will ever be reported that identifies you.

All information is stored securely. It is only made available to appropriate staff, and is kept strictly confidential.

However, if you do not want your information to be stored in the DID, please tell the people who are treating you.

They will make sure your information is not copied into the DID. You may, at a later date, still decide to opt out.

Please contact NHS Digital directly, their contact details are:

Telephone: 0300 303 5678

Email: enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk

Website: www.did.hscic.gov.uk

Transferring information

To analyse your images and produce a report for the clinician your information is stored securely within the United Kingdom but may be transferred to third parties who are based elsewhere within the EEA.

All third parties used by Alliance Medical have been checked and approved by us. They operate under robust contractual data protection arrangements and are required to comply with our data protection policies and procedures and the data protection legislation.

Should information need to be accessed from outside of the EEA, e.g. for the purposes of system maintenance or support, robust contractual data protection arrangements are in place to enable this to be done securely and legally.

Contacting us

If you need more information, please contact us.

Data Protection Officer

Alliance Medical Ltd

First Floor, The Woods,

Opus 40 Business Park,

Warwick CV34 5AH

Tel 01926 482 000

Visit www.alliancemedical.co.uk

Email dataprotectionofficer@alliance.co.uk

If you require this information in a different format please let us know via customercare@alliance.co.uk

Health records

Your health records are made by or on behalf of a health professional in connection with your care. We may request copies of previous imaging and reports completed by other organisations for comparison purposes to enable us to provide a comprehensive report. When this information is requested it is transferred securely and kept confidential by the people who receive it.

We will send on a copy of relevant records we produce during your visit, to your referrer.

You should contact them if you have any questions about your treatment.

We only use or pass on information about you which is necessary for your care and treatment.

Data protection

We are committed to protecting your personal data.

We take great care to make sure that we keep your information confidential and safe. All staff are required to undertake mandatory data protection training, have signed a confidentiality agreement as part of their employment terms and are aware of their duty to keep information about you confidential in line with the data protection legislation.

The law strictly controls the way we can share some types of personal information, including your health records and other sensitive personal information.

We carry out training to keep our staff up-to-date with the law and best practice.

Everyone working in the healthcare sector has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential and secure. However, we may need to share some information about you for your benefit, for example, to:

Allow you to be well cared for by other health related organisations; and
Investigate complaints and legal claims

We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will also make sure it is kept confidential and secure. We will not reveal your information to anyone else without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances, such as when the health or safety of others is at risk or if the law says we must pass on the information.

Anyone who receives information from us is also under a legal duty to keep it confidential and secure.

Your rights to see your health records

You have a right to ask to see your health records. This includes information held on our computers and our manual systems. To see this information, you need to make a ‘subject access request’.

To do this you will need to contact the facility that you attended.

Under the Data Protection legislation you will no longer be charged for these requests.

You must make your request in writing to us and provide suitable identification. We will process your request within 30 days of receipt.

We have a responsibility to make sure that we keep personal information safe and not to reveal it to unauthorised people.