Child Privacy Notice
This explains why the hospital collects information about you, how we keep it safe and private, and how we may use your information.
Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust work together like one team behind the scenes, even though they are separate. If you hear about a hospital you haven’t been to, don’t worry - it’s normal, and both trusts work together to keep your information safe.
Why we collect information about you
The health staff (who help you feel better when you’re not well) you see at hospital, which includes doctors and nurses, have to keep a record about your health and any treatment that you need to have. This is called your hospital record and we need to keep this information to look after you and make you better when you are not so well.
What do we record?
We keep a record of every time that you see someone at the hospital. We keep a record of:
- Your name, address, and information about the people who look after you - this could be your mum and dad or someone else that cares for you.
- Your home telephone and mobile number and your email address if you give this to us.
- Details about your health which could include any previous times you have been unwell and needed to visit a doctor or nurse at the hospital.
- Details of the appointments you come to or whenever you stay in hospital and you see our health staff.
- Any tests that you have had such as an x-ray or a blood test.
- Any medicines you need to have to keep you well.
How we keep your information safe and private?
Your hospital record is kept on a secure computer system. Only health staff and the admin staff who help them can look at your information. It is very difficult for anybody who isn’t allowed to look at your record to do so - we have strong security systems on all our computers.
If you have a mobile phone or an email address we will only use that to contact you when we need to talk to you about your health, for example to remind you about an appointment that you might have to see the health staff. If you don’t want us to text you anything at all then just tell us and we will make sure that doesn’t happen.
All your information is very private and we won’t tell anyone else about it unless they are also looking after you or trying to make you better - and only then if they need to know about it.
If the health staff you see at the hospital is not sure what’s wrong with you, they may talk to another health colleague about you to find about what’s making you feel unwell.
Sometimes we also have to tell other people about information in your hospital record. This may be because it’s the law or to keep you safe from danger. Such as we may also have to share your information with people outside of the hospital who need to look after you when you go home (GP, school, social workers, the police etc).
If you’re unwell and that illness could be spread to all your friends, family or classmates, then we might need to let the right people know so that they can try to make sure that no one else catches that illness as well. Whenever we can, we would always try to tell you if we were going to tell someone else about you and your hospital record.
The hospital will keep your information safe until you visit us again. We need to keep your information until at least your 25th birthday as proof of the care we gave to you.
If you, or your parent or carer, want a copy of your hospital health records, you can ask online through our secure Request for Information Portal.
Any questions?
If you have any questions, then you or your mum, dad or carer can ask your health professional. If you would like to submit any comments or feedback regarding our Privacy Notice please email these to: iownt.
If you need this information on paper, in bigger writing, or in another format that helps you, please contact: iownt.