CHKS Limited processes patient data to help healthcare organisations achieve sustainable improvements in their performance. This notice explains more about how we use your personal information as a data controller. Specifically it describes how we process the pseudonymised Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS) supplied under licence and disseminated directly to us by NHS England. Our privacy page provides links to separate notices for data that was supplied through to CHKS.
We cannot identify you in the ECDS that we hold but it is produced by NHS England using data about NHS patients.
What information we hold about you
Our tools and services use ECDS to help healthcare customers improve their services. It is the national data set for urgent and emergency care. Your details will be included in this data set if you have received emergency care from the NHS in England. It is special category data relating to health.
More information about ECDS can be found here. You can manage your NHS personal data choices here.
individual patients from the pseudonymised ECDS that we hold.
How we use your information
We present informatics, insights and analysis to healthcare customers using our tools and services. These are described on our website. Customers use our services for a number of purposes including to:
Identify improvement opportunities and support change initiatives aimed at improving patient care
Understand demand, patient flow and treatment pathways
Identify and assess activity profiling, efficiency and outcomes
Identify pathways where there is potential for improvement
Identify areas of best practice either within the Provider Trust or local/national health economies
Better understand how they compare to other Provider Trusts with similar case mixes
Identify variations in performance
We link ECDS to the HES data that we receive under agreement with NHS England. This provides NHS customers with a more complete view of care to identify areas for improvement. We also use the data to publish articles and reports to broaden public understanding.
ECDS is provided to us by NHS England under licence and under sections 261(1) and 261(2)(b)ii) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) we must identify specific legal bases for collecting and using your data.
We process ECDS under the following legal bases:
It is necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interests and those of our NHS customers. Our legitimate interest is in being able to provide tools and services that will benefit healthcare organisations. We have a legitimate interest in being able to offer a commercial service that is based on a trusted dataset. It is also in the interests of the NHS, patients and the public as a whole, because it brings benefits and improvements to health and social care. Without the processing of this data we would not be able to deliver these benefits. This would be to the detriment of healthcare professionals and patients.
It is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes. It is proportionate to the aim pursued, respects the essence of the right to data protection and provides for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject.
We only process ECDS under the terms of our data sharing agreement with NHS England. The processing is subject to additional safeguards, in particular the technical and organisational measures that fall under the scope of our independently and externally audited information security management system.
Information we share with other organisations
Our NHS customers can access a secure portal to see ECDS data relating to their service. This is at record level. Though we cannot identify you in the data your healthcare provider will be able to do so. They can also see aggregated data relating to other organisations (their peers).
Our NHS customers can also use our bespoke services to receive reports, analysis and visualisations. We also use the data to publish reports and articles that aim to increase the public understanding of health and social care. We may also work with private companies to provide them with reports and analysis. Any information shared in this way will be at a high level so that individuals cannot be identified.
Information only processed in the UK
The patient data we receive from NHS England is processed within our data centre, which is located wholly within the UK.
How long we keep your information
We keep data for the duration of our agreements with NHS England.
Your rights
| Informed | ✓ | This notice and the one published by NHS England are to inform you about how we use your data when processing ECDS. |
| Access | ✓ | We cannot identify you from the ECDS data we hold. Please contact NHS England for more information on how you can access data relating to you. |
| Objection | ✗ | Not applicable |
| Portability | ✗ | Not applicable |
| Correction or Change | ✓ | If any of the information we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete then this should be corrected through your healthcare provider or via NHS England. |
| Erasure | ✗ | Not applicable |
| Restriction | ✓ | You can request that the use of your personal information is limited to storage only. We cannot identify you from the ECDS we hold. Please contact NHS England for more information on how to restrict your data. |
| Informed or automated decision making | ✗ | We do not use the data to produce decisions made solely by computers rather than people. |
| Withdraw consent | ✗ | The data is not processed on the basis of consent |
Find out more about your personal data rights at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website.
Data Protection Officer
Our Data Protection Officer can be contacted by email on [email protected].
How to complain
If you feel that we have let you down in relation to your information rights then please contact our Data Protection Officer using the details above.
You can also make complaints directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the independent authority upholding information rights for the UK. Their website is ico.org.uk and their telephone helpline number is 0303 123 1113.
