As you have attended, or are due to attend, Frimley Park Hospital NHS Trust as a Private Patient, the hospital would like to take the opportunity to inform you of the ways in which the information obtained from you may be used.

Information about yourself is needed to enable the staff to deliver the most effective healthcare you need. This information will be shared with your GP and other healthcare professionals invoiced with your care, eg District Nurses. You may also be receiving care from other people outside the NHS, eg Social Services, but this information is only ever used or passed on when essential to your care.

Our staff may also ask for information which is needed for other purposes, including:

• Looking after the health of the general public.
• Helping staff to review the care they provide to make sure that it is the highest standard.
• Managing and planning within the NHS:
  • Making sure that our services can meet patients' needs in the future.
  • Preparing statistics regarding performance and activity.
  • Investigating complaints or legal claims.

Information may be used for training and educating staff, or in research which has been approved by the local Research Ethics Committee. In these cases, if your details are involved, you will be contacted specifically for your approval and consent.

There are also circumstances in which the law requires the hospital to pass on information, eg to notify a birth.

At your request, staff will also keep a relative, friend or carer up to date with the progress of your treatment. However, this will only be done at your specific request.

Frimley Park Hospital would also like to take this opportunity to inform you that you have a right to apply for access to your health records for which a small administrative fee will be charged.

Please be assured that everyone working for this Trust is under a legal duty to keep information about you confidential, and anyone who receives information from this hospital is also under the same legal duty. Wherever possible, details which identify you will be removed. The Medical Director is also responsible as the Caldicott Guardian, for monitoring and developing the policy of patient confidentiality.

If you would like to know more about how your information is used, please telephone 01276 604752 (9am to 5pm) or you can speak to the person in charge of your care.