Privacy notice - Connect Care
What we do
Commencing 2016, the London Borough of Lewisham (the Council) Adult Social Care Services and the local Health (NHS) bodies implemented a series of initiatives designed to enable closer working and more sharing of care and health information, in order to improve care and health services to you – our Lewisham residents.
One of these initiatives included the implementation of the Connect Care project. This project is to deliver improved adult social care services by sharing some of that adult social care information with health bodies and other local authorities – and uses your name and your NHS Number as an identifier.
Each time you make contact with the Council’s adult social care team about your social care needs, you will be asked if you consent to share your information. You can refuse consent (opt-out) if you do not want your social care information shared with anyone outside of Council’s adult social care services.
About Connect Care
Connect Care collects your important health and social care information into a web portal where it can be read by social care and NHS staff who are directly involved in your care. This information will help them make better and faster decisions about the best care services to provide to you.
The information in Connect Care is collected from many different health and social care information systems including from hospitals, community health bodies, GPs, and local councils. The Connect Care web portal is managed by the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust and below you can find a full list of organisations sharing information in Connect Care.
What information we share on Connect Care
Information comes from a variety of organisations and information systems. The type of information shared includes:
- name, address and date of birth
- NHS number - see 'use of your NHS Number'
- dates of hospital appointments, admissions and discharges
- diagnoses
- medications
- known allergies
- x-ray and blood test results
- social care assessments and services provided.
Your NHS number
If you are receiving social care support from the Council then amongst other identifiers we will be using your NHS Number to identify you. This ensures that both the NHS and the Council’s Adult Social Care teams use the same identifier for you, in order to reduce errors in identification – therefore improving your care.
The NHS number then has two uses:
- as a unique identifier to allow Social Care information to be displayed in the Council’s adult social care case information management system, for the provision of direct care
- as a unique identifier to allow some of your social care information to be displayed in the web portal Connect Care - a shared health and care record which includes a number of support services including GP’s, hospitals, community matrons, district nurses and social care practitioners.
What to do if you object to the use of your NHS number
You have the right to object/refuse the Council the right to use your NHS number in this way. If you do this, it will not stop you from receiving care, but it may limit how we are able to support you and 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 the options you have.
If you wish to refuse (opt-out) the Council permission to use your NHS Number for sharing your adult social care information, please discuss with a member of our adult social care team. The main contact details are below:
- telephone 020 8314 7777 or
- email gateway@lewisham.gov.uk
If you do not want any of your health or social care information to be shared on Connect Care, you can refuse (opt-out) by completing the form on Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.
More information about the Connect Care programme can be found on Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust Connect Care FAQs.
Why we process your information
The use of joined up information across health and social care brings many benefits. One specific example 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 and the hospital does not know who to contact at the Council 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, who is the appropriate contact at the Council, and allow earlier planning of a patient’s care.
The use of the NHS Number by adult social care will bring additional benefits:
- better coordinated and safer care across health and social care enabled by the sharing of real-time information
- better coordination of discharges from hospital into social care, as explained above
- more time to spend on planning and coordinating social care because health staff can identify and involve social care staff earlier in the process, and vice versa
- earlier help to maximise opportunities leading to greater independence
- less paperwork and more efficient use of social care resources
- reliable source of identification - we are not reliant purely on name, address details and date of birth to identify an individual
How we protect your data
Data is retained in the adult social care information system in line with the Council’s record retention policies. These policies are in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998, Government record retention regulations and best practice.
The Council’s IT security and confidentiality policies ensure that your information is protected, and available only to health and social care professional staff directly involved in your care. It will do this by sharing appropriate information between health and social care services at the time of patient contact. These policies are available for inspection in the privacy section of our website.
Access to the information recorded in the Council’s social care information system and in Connect Care is strictly controlled and based on the role of the professional, and a valid reason to seek the information is required.
In terms of the Data Protection Act the Council is both the Data Controller and the Data Processor.
Connect Care Privacy Notice
The organisation providing you with this privacy notice, and controlling the social care data shared in Connect Care, is the London Borough of Lewisham (the Council).
Health and social care information is being shared in order to improve the level of service that all organisations provide in delivering care.
In terms of the Data Protection Act the Council is both the Data Controller and the Data Processor of Council adult social care information shared on Connect Care.
Agencies we share information with
The organisations listed below are participating in sharing information through Connect Care, and more health and care organisations are joining as we move forward across London.
- Lewisham GP Practices
- Greenwich GP Practices
- Bexley GP Practices
- Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
- Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust
- London Borough of Lewisham (adult social care)
- Royal Borough of Greenwich (social care)
- London Borough of Bexley (adult social care)
- Out of hours care for Greenwich GP Practices (Greenbrook)
- Out of hours care for Lewisham GP Practices (SELDOC)
These organisations process personal data which relates to your wellbeing, development, safety, behaviour, physical/mental health, and social care.
All members of staff employed by these agencies are bound by the common law duty of confidentiality which means that information that you provide to us (and to these other organisations) must be held in confidence and not shared with anyone else unless:
- partners are legally obliged or permitted to disclose the information to another organisation or person
- you provide consent to share the information
- protocols are in place permitting partners to share information about you to support any intervention or services provided.