Policies

Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust Data Protection and Privacy Policy

Introduction

Your personal data is data which by itself or with other data available to us can be used to identify you. We are Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, the data controller. Our Trust is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to process personal and special categories of information under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 (subject to parliamentary approval) and our registration number is Z6078102.

This data protection and privacy policy sets out how we will use your personal data when you access our website. You can contact our Data Protection Officer at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham B4 6NH if you have any questions. 

The types of personal data and special categories of personal data we collect and use

We collect personal information about you in various ways such as when you provide it at our hospitals, on our websites or affiliated websites, through our apps and social media channels, at our events, through your participation in surveys, via text messages or on the telephone. We will use this information to provide the particular service you have requested. For your convenience, we use cookies so you do not have to log in every time your visit our website.

The types of personal information we may collect include but is not limited to:

  • Full name and personal details including contact information (eg home, address, postcode and address history, email address, home and mobile telephone numbers)
  • Username and password if you have registered an account with us
  • Customer service information (such as customer service enquiries, comments and history)
  • Device information eg IP address, the location of the mobile device or tablet used to access the website
  • Photographs, comments and other content you provide;
  • Social media information
  • Contact information you provide about friends or other people you would like us to contact
  • Information we may obtain from our third party service providers.

Sharing of your personal data

Subject to applicable data protection law, we may share your personal data with:

  • Relevant staff at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
  • Other related organisations and other persons who help us to provide our services
  • Our legal and other professional advisors including our solicitors
  • Other organisations or persons who help us to improve our services
  • In an emergency or to otherwise protect your vital interests
  • Anyone else where we have your consent or where it is required by law
  • Our site may contain links to third party websites and we are not responsible for those sites. We provide links to these websites for your convenience only and you access them at your own risk.

Using your personal data: legal basis and purposes

We will process your personal data:

As necessary to provide the particular service you have requested which might include but is not limited to:

  • storing your information in written records and on electronically on computer
  • Keeping our records updated
  • Verifying your identity
  • Verifying that you are a current patient of our Children’s Hospital or Women’s Hospital
  • Sharing your information with other people and organisations that are either responsible or directly involved in your care. This may involve taking your information off-site.

As necessary to comply with a legal obligation eg

  • When you exercise your rights under data protection law and make requests for information we hold about you
  • For compliance with legal and regulatory requirements and related disclosures eg quality reviews, incident reporting, handling of complaints
  • For activities relating to the prevention, detection and investigation of crime.

We will process your special category (sensitive) personal data eg, ethnic origin and gender:

  1. As necessary to protect your vital interests eg where there are safeguarding concerns
  2. As necessary to serve the substantial public interest eg in ensuring that Trust serves its population and surrounding areas eg you may be asked to participate in satisfaction surveys. Personal information may be used to help us improve the quality of services we provide
  3. Based on your consent.

You are free at any time to change your mind and withdraw your consent, If you wish to do so please contact our Data Protection Officer.

International transfers

Your personal data may be transferred outside the UK and the European Economic Area. While some countries have adequate protections for personal data under applicable laws, in other countries steps will be necessary to ensure appropriate safeguards apply to it. These include imposing contractual obligations on adequacy.

Criteria used to determine retention periods

We will retain your personal data in line with the Trust’s retention policy. We only retain information for as long as it is required. You contact the Data Protection Officer if you wish your personal data to be erased from our systems.

Your rights under applicable data protection law

Your rights are as follows (noting that these rights do not apply in all circumstances and that data portability is only relevant from May 2018):

  • The right to be informed about our processing of your personal data
  • The right to have your personal data corrected if it is inaccurate and to have incomplete personal data completed
  • The right to object to processing of your personal data
  • The right to restrict processing of your personal data
  • The right to have your personal data erased (the ‘right to be forgotten)
  • The right to request access to your personal data and information about how we process it
  • The right to move, copy or transfer your personal data (‘data portability’).

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). It has powers and can investigate compliance with data protection law: https://ico.org.uk/. For more details on all the above you can contact our Data Protection Officer at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham B4 6NH.

Data anonymisation and aggregation

Your personal data may be converted into statistical or aggregated data which cannot be used to identify you, and then used to produce statistical research and reports. This aggregated data may be shared and used in all the ways described above. 

Children’s privacy

Children should be supervised when using this website. Please let us know if a child under the age of 13 has provided us with personal information online.

See our specific data protection policies for our parent and carers and children and young people.

Cookies policy

Cookie Notice

You should be aware that when you access or use our website we may collect information from your devices through the use of 'cookies'. Cookies perform various different functions, and the purpose of this policy is to give you a clearer understanding of:

  • What cookies are
  • Why do we use cookies
  • How we use cookies
  • How you can control the use of cookies

What are cookies?

Cookies are text files containing a small amount of information that are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Your browser makes cookies available each time you visit our websites.

Why do we use cookies?

Cookies are used by our websites to improve your experience on the site and to ensure that relevant content and functions are delivered and used more effectively.

We use both session cookies and persistent cookies to perform various functions across our sites.

Session cookies are downloaded to your device temporarily for the period that you browse a particular website; these cookies might allow you to navigate between pages more efficiently or enable websites to remember the preferences you select. Persistent cookies can be used to help websites remember our website administrators as a returning visitor.

How we use cookies?

When you visit our websites, Cookies will be placed on your device in two ways. Cookies placed by Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, as the site operator, are called "first party" Cookies. Cookie may also be placed on your device by a party other than Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, such cookies are known as "third party” cookies. Examples of the uses of third party cookies include collecting usage data via google analytics.

While there are many different uses for first and third party cookies, the cookies used by us all fall into one of the following main categories of cookies:

  • Strictly Necessary Cookies
  • Functionality Cookies
  • Performance Cookies

Set out below is more information on these categories of cookies, including their purpose and whether these cookies collect personal data:

Cookie Type - Strictly Necessary Cookies

Purpose

These cookies are strictly necessary to enable you to navigate our websites and to use the features you have requested during the course of your visit. They are used to provide content to you, as a user, and to provide information that you have requested.

Such cookies are essential to help your device download or stream information so that you can navigate around our website, use any features and allow you to return to pages you have previously visited.

More information

Examples of strictly necessary cookies:

  • Positioning information on your screen so that you can see and use our websites
  • To keep website editors logged in when they use our website so they are not required to log in every time they visit

These cookies do not remember your preferences beyond your current visit.

Data Collection

Some of these cookies do collect your personal data in order to function. They may collect the following types of personal data:

  • IP address
  • Location data
  • Identify you as being logged in our websites

Cookie lifetime

These cookies are deleted when you close your web browser (browser session).

Cookie Type - Functionality Cookies

Purpose

These cookies enhance the functionality of our websites by storing your preferences. Functional cookies record information about choices you've made (such as language preference).

More information

Here are some examples of the uses of functionality cookies:

  • To remember your preferences and settings such as language

Data Collection

Some of these cookies do collect your personal data, to enable us to provide the services as outlined above.

Cookie lifetime

Functional cookies expire after a maximum 2 years. Functionality cookies can be deleted from your browser history at any point before their expiry time.

Cookie Type - Performance Cookies

Purpose

These cookies are used to collect information on website usage. Such cookies are used to provide aggregated statistics on visitors to our websites. These statistics are used for internal purposes to help us to test and improve the performance of our websites, providing a better user experience.

More information

Here are some examples of the uses of performance cookies:

  • To provide statistics on how our websites are used;
  • To assess errors within the user experience.

Additionally, we use tools to assess cookie information at an aggregate level to carry out analytical functions on our site including, Google Analytics

Data Collection

While these cookies do not identify you personally while you are not logged in, they will collect your browser information and anonymised data, for the purposes outlined above.

Some of these cookies are managed by third parties such as Google Analytics. These third parties are not capable of using these cookies for any purpose other than those outlined above and they are unable to identify with these cookies.

Cookie lifetime

Performance cookies are valid for varying periods. Some performance cookies are deleted once you close your browser, while others have an indefinite validity period. Such cookies can be deleted at any stage using your browser settings.

How can you control the use of cookies?

You can amend your browser settings to block some or all cookies. To do this, follow the instructions provided by your preferred web browser (please choose the relevant link below). Please be aware that if you block cookies from a website, some or all the website's functions may not perform as intended:

Mobile phone users may have to refer to their handset manual for details on how to block cookies using their mobile browser.