Digital consent
Please see below the list of privacy notices for our organisation.
The trust is working with Accurx Software to provide a number of extra communication pathways such as text messaging and appointment booking. Accurx is a separate application which links to our patient database (TPP SystmOne). Accurx software privacy notice.
The Trust is providing access to a web-based cardiac rehabilitation programme to support patient recovery. The programme is called Activate your Heart and is provided by University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
Dementia UK Admiral Nurse will be collaborating with the Trust to provide part of the provision of service within the Richmond Dementia Team. Admiral Nurses privacy notice.
The Trust and Your Healthcare CIC are working together to provide an autism spectrum disorder pre and post diagnosis service, under contract from South West London Integrated Care Board.
Patient information will be shared between organisations to enable an effective service.
We do not carry out automated decision making but will work with partner organisations to endeavour to identify people who may benefit from additional services (profiling) for example those who attend our urgent treatment centres frequently. Appropriate staff, for example clinicians, would make the actual decisions based on the available information.
The Trust is working with Bank Partners to centralise the management of the bank (temporary) workers function. This improve the fill rates and bring the Trust in line with the current process at Kingston Hospital Foundation trust, as part of the Better Together Partnership. This will include the recruitment and onboarding of new Bank workers as well as the booking of new and existing bank workers.
All key recruitment data will be shared between HRCH and Bank Partners. For more information, please see the full bank partners privacy notice.
The Trust has over 300 volunteers and HRCH has similar ambitions. We keep information about volunteers – basic demographic information, recruitment, retention, communications and deployment, in a database called Better Impact. The information for each Trusts Volunteers is ringfenced so that only Volunteering Staff in each Trust can see the volunteers data of their Trust.
The Trust makes use of CCTV systems including body worn cameras for crime prevention in line with the Information Commissioners CCTV code of practice.
The Trust has joined the national Cerebral Palsy Integrated Pathway. The aim of the programme is to make the assessment of a child's musculoskeletal system (bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints) more consistent, so a child can be examined the same way no matter who sees them or where they live in the country.
Richmond community services staff work with partner organisation, Achieving for Children, to provide a multi-disciplinary team meeting within a child development setting. Please see the Child development multi-disciplinary team meetings privacy notice.
The Trust is part of the Child Health Information Service, which liaises across care settings, agencies and regions to ensure that children and young people, in their local population, receive all the care and services that they are entitled to. The Trust provides data to both the South West and the North West London hubs. Find out more on the Your Healthcare website.
The Trust works closely with other organisations as part of this programme. Please see the NHS Digital website for more information.
The Department of Health & Social Care mandates all NHS Trusts to undertake clinical audits on care delivered to patients. The audits can be undertaken by clinical staff employed by us or by external audit companies.
This could involve individuals who have not been involved with your direct care accessing your medical records.
We have an annual clinical audit programme which requires clinical staff to participate. Clinical staff consider patient medical records to review the care provided, and to identify ways in which the care could be improved in the future
In order to deal with issues raised by you or to process your complaint or legal claim, staff within our Legal Claims Department and Complaints Department will access your medical records and may share this information with other staff as well as external third parties where applicable, including our solicitors or NHS Resolution (formerly NHS Litigation Authority).
We take patient safety very seriously. If an incident occurs which was not expected we will investigate it, therefore the staff involved in your care, with support from the Trust’s Quality Governance Department, will access your medical records.
The health and care professionals who look after you keep their own records in different specialist systems that contain details of any treatment or care you have received or are receiving from them.
These records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and a combination of working practices and technology ensure your information is kept confidential and secure.
Connecting your Care provides health and care professionals within SW London with a 'secure' electronic summary view of the information that organisations want to share about you.
This provides the people looking after you with important information from other services that you use, so that they can quickly assess you and make the best decision or plans about your care.
You can find out more about the organisations within South West London that are part of Connecting your Care on our website, along with the answers to some frequently asked questions.
This does not apply to patients based outside of South West London
The Trust will be contacting named community pharmacies on behalf of patients to ensure that their medicines care and follow up is managed once they are discharged from our clinical services. This is known as the discharge medicines service. This is to enable community pharmacies fulfil the National essential service contract from NHS England.
Information on how we process your personal information as part of this service
The Trust has commissioned Concentric Health to provide a platform to enable a digital consent to treatment. We are not sharing your information with Concentric, they provide a software platform for us. Traditionally, at pre-assessment your clinician would have explained the pros and cons of the treatment and maybe given you a leaflet and asked you to sign a form. The introduction of Concentric digital consent is being done in order to:
- digitally transform the consent process, allowing a paperless process
- reduce errors, omissions, and variation in the consent process
- improve your understanding of the treatment and risks
You will still discuss the treatment at pre-assessment and then either scan a QR code, or agree to receive an email with an un-guessable link, to give you access to the Concentric Platform where your consent to treatment information will be available for you. As with traditional consent, you sign on the platform, and once again on the day of the procedure.
The Trust provides an electronic prescription service. This means that you can nominate your pharmacy to receive your prescription.
Every day, NHS staff and clinicians are delivering care in new and innovative ways, achieving better outcomes for patients, and driving efficiency. Scaling and sharing these innovations across the health and care system in England is a key challenge for the NHS.
Harnessing the power of digital, data and technology is the key to recovering from the pandemic, addressing longer-term challenges, and delivering services in new and more sustainable ways.
The future of our NHS depends on improving how we use data to:
- care for our patients;
- improve population health;
- plan and improve services; and
- find new ways to deliver services.
The FDP
A ‘data platform’ refers to software which will enable NHS organisations to bring together data – currently stored in separate systems – to support staff to access the information they need in one safe and secure environment so that they are better able to coordinate, plan and deliver high quality care.
A ‘federated’ data platform means that every hospital Trust and integrated care board (ICB) (on behalf of the integrated care system (ICS)) will have their own platform which can connect and collaborate with other data platforms as a “federation” making it easier for health and care organisations to work together.
A digitised, connected NHS can deliver services more effectively and efficiently, with people at the centre, leading to:
- Better outcomes and experience for people - A more efficient NHS ultimately means a better service for patients, reduced waiting times and more timely treatment. The platform will provide ICBs with the insights they need to understand the current and future needs of their populations so they can tailor early preventative interventions and target health and care support. Patients will have more flexibility and choice about how and where they access services and receive care, helping them to stay healthy for longer.
- Better experience for staff - NHS staff will be able to access the information they need in one secure place. This reduces the time they spend chasing referrals, scheduling appointments, and waiting for test results and allows them to work more flexibly to deliver high quality care for their patients.
- Connecting the NHS - the connectivity of the platforms is extremely important as it will enable us to rapidly scale and share tools and applications that have been developed at a local level – in a secure way – supporting levelling up and reducing variation across England.
Federation means that each Trust and ICB has a separate platform for which they are the data controller. Access for each platform will be governed and managed by each individual organisation.
The FDP “Products” in use at the Trust are:
- the Inpatient Care Coordination Solution (CCS)
- London Ambulance Service - My Clinical Feedback
The Trust has a membership of more than 7,000 members from the local communities we serve. We need our local community to become members of our hospital and to support us and help shape the future and the services we offer local people. Membership is free and it is completely up to individual members how involved they want to be. Staff are also automatically members unless they choose to opt-out.
A third party company manages the Trust’s Foundation Membership database. This third party company is bound by strict confidentiality agreements.
The Trust works with IQVIA to provide patient level information and costing system to NHS Improvement as part of a mandatory data collection - you can view the IQVIA privacy notice here.
The Trust uses JotForm as a tool to create online forms. This helps us gather important information to help us perform our duties as a public body. These forms are used for patient and staff questionnaires. More information on how we process personal data on JotForm.
Kingston Hospital Charity has set up their own Privacy Policy.
For patients over 16 years, the Kingston Patient Portal is a secure online system provided by Zesty (data processor) for Kingston Hospital (the data controller) that allows you to look at information from your hospital record, view outpatient appointments, receive messages from your hospital care team and complete forms and questionnaires. It is available from your computer, tablet, or smartphone. It’s optional and if you don’t sign up we will continue to communicate with you by post and phone. If you do sign up, you will have the option to turn off paper appointment and clinic letters.
Please see our Patient Portal page for more information about the portal. You are also be able to access information from the portal through the NHS App. For more information on the NHS App:
The NHS App links to the Kingston Patient Portal and you may find it easier to first log in to the NHS App then “jump-off” into the Kingston Patient Portal.
South West London Radiology Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS/RIS)
The main Radiology imaging Trusts in South West London have got together and procured a new South West London (SWL) Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) system and Radiology Information System (RIS).
The PACS is a computer system that stores clinical images such as X-Rays, MRI, CAT and Ultrasound scans and the RIS is a computer system that is used to manage the electronic radiology systems and processes.
Both systems allow staff, from any of the partner organisations, who are providing you with care, timely access to your diagnostic imaging and outcome information. As usual, only those involved in your care, or admin of care are allowed to access the information. For more information please see this page.
Kingston Private Health is the private patient unit at Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. We provide excellent, personalised care to meet your individual requirements, delivered by the expertise and compassion of the area’s leading consultants, dedicated clinical teams, nurses and support staff.
The Trust has contracted TPW as data processors to provide management and billing for the Private Health unit.
All hospitals which provide private healthcare are required by law to send information to PHIN (Private Health Information Network) on each episode of care. PHIN publishes information about the activity and performance of hospitals providing private care. They do this in order to help people choose their care provider. This includes some personal data through they will not be able to identify you from this. Please see the PHIN Privacy Notice for further details.
The Trust is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. It may share information provided to it with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, in order to prevent and detect fraud. The privacy notice of the National Counter Fraud Initiative details the information which we may share and the legal basis for this.
The Trust uses the NHSmail Live Service to create, store and send data through NHSmail.
This processing could be through:
- Email (Exchange / Outlook)
- Instant Messaging, Voice, Video or Screen Sharing (Skype for Business).
- Office 365 services (SharePoint, OneDrive, Team, etc.)
- Exchange and Skype for Business data is stored by Accenture within the UK.
Office 365 data is stored by Microsoft, depending on the specific service this may either be within the UK, EU or outside the EU. For further information see Microsoft’s privacy information.
The NHSmail Live Service deploys highly sophisticated SPAM and Malware filtering technologies to block SPAM, Viruses and Malware.
The Trust processes data with NHSmail under:
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Article 9 (2) (h) – processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine.
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Lawful processing by Controller (Article 6 b and e);(b) as part of their employment contract it is necessary for their job(e) as the mail system is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller (Public Task)
We need information about you in order to comply with our legal obligation, which is to ensure that the Trust is paid for any services it provides and to undertake any processing that will allow us to verify whether you are entitled to free NHS care. Our obligations are set out in the Department of Health & Social Care Guidance on implementing the overseas visitor charging regulations.
Whilst we receive information from you when you come into contact with us, we also receive information about you from other individuals or organisations, such as when you are referred for treatment or in response to questions relating to your eligibility for free NHS care. We also need enough information to be able to provide you with appropriate healthcare services.
Where it is necessary for discharging our obligations in this area, your personal information may be sent to the Home Office. The information provided may be used and retained by the Home Office for its own purposes, which include enforcing immigration controls overseas, at the ports of entry and within the UK. The Home Office may also share this information with other law enforcement and authorised debt recovery agencies for purposes including national security, investigation and prosecution of crime, and collection of fines and civil penalties
NHS providers are mandated by NHS England to offer the opportunity to leave quick anonymous feedback regarding your experience with our services. The Trust is achieving this via the online platform provided by Civica. For more information, please see our Patient Experience Surveys privacy notice.
Physitrack software is used to provide patients with tailored exercise programmes for three trust therapy services (Children’s therapy at Richmond, and CNRT adults).
Undertaking research is an important element of providing healthcare. Clinical staff are actively encouraged to participate in research trials. The Trust’s Research and Development Department manages all research projects undertaken by us. Your participation in a research project will only take place with your explicit consent, or if the national Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) agrees that it should have special permission to undertake research without consent. The Trust occasionally works with other organisations e.g. universities and external organisations to pilot new ways of working, with the aim to provide improved and more efficient services to patients. Where the Trust undertakes this work, you will be informed and be asked if you wish to participate.
Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust and Richmond Wellbeing Service are collaborating to provide a holistic service to support people that are experiencing Long Covid, whether they were admitted to hospital or self-managed in the community during the acute stage of Covid-19.
NHS England and NICE guidance (2020) suggests that for many of those who are experiencing Long Covid, the virus and the required treatments could have a lasting impact on their health.
Some of the main clinical issues identified to date include:
- Respiratory (desaturation/breathlessness management)
- Fatigue
- Anxiety/Stress/Low mood
- Cognition issues
- MSK post critical care rehabilitation
The MDT includes Kingston Hospital Post Covid Assessment Service therapists, Consultants, Richmond and Kingston Community Long Covid service therapists, and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services, and GPs.
More information on how patient data is used within this team.
The Trust works with local health and social care providers such as integrated care boards, local social services and hospital trusts to process data for ‘secondary use’.
This is when we use data outside of the normal direct health care provision. We will ask for your consent to share information for this purpose.
When you use our website or interact with our social media presence (e.g. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook) your data (e.g. comments, likes, reviews) may be visible to providers of social networking services and their users.
We suggest that you review the privacy and security settings of your social media accounts to ensure you understand how your data may be shared and used.
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is required to take steps to protect the public from disease. This includes providing vaccination services. This specific responsibility is fulfilled by NHS England, which works with NHS Trusts and Local Authorities to vaccinate children in schools. The official authority for the vaccination for school children is provided by the Health & Social Care Act 2012 and the NHS Act 2006.
Lifesaving vaccinations are offered under a public health agenda, and we are contractually obliged by NHS England to deliver such vaccines and are commissioned to do so as part of the NHS Public Health Functions Agreement, under s.7A of the NHS Act 2006. As a Provider, we must offer the service to 100% of eligible school-aged children and young people.
We provide the following vaccinations:
- Inhaled/injectable flu – Preschool children, primary school children and secondary school children if indicated on the flu letter from September to December.
- Meningitis ACWY/Diphtheria/Tetanus/Polio – Year 9 and all young people who may have missed this vaccine up to age 19 and up to age 25 for SEND young people. Delivered from January to April.
- HPV - Single dose in Year 8 and older young people who have missed the vaccine up to age 19 and up to Age 25 for SEND young people.
- Polio and MMR as part of a London wide campaign to ensure under and unvaccinated children have an opportunity to catchup with their vaccinations.
- Hepatitis B vaccination, dose 2 and dose 6 and a DBS (Dried Blood Spot) to infants and babies as set out in the Hepatitis B failsafe pathway.
- Any vaccine offered that is part of the UK Immunisation Schedule.
We also offer catch up sessions in school and community clinics throughout the year.
The Trust provides vaccinations for all staff. The sharing of this information is necessary to enable the coordinated and effective roll-out of this programme. See our staff flu vaccine privacy notice for more information.
The strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) is a screening tool for emotional, behavioural and mental health wellbeing of children and young people in care, aged 4 to 16 years.
In the trust we work with Achieving for Children to use an online SDQ. The questionnaires are shared securely with parents/carers and teachers before the health assessment and personal education plan (PEP) meetings. They do not contain any personal information.
The Summary Care Record (SCR) is a summary electronic patient record of national health services patient data held on a central secure database covering the whole of England. The purpose of the system is to make ‘essential’ patient data readily available anywhere the patient seeks treatment. The Trust does not feed any information into the system however staff that are treating you at the Trust may access the SCR to view your record with your consent or when it is in your vital interest.
From April 2021 it has been mandatory for all Health Care Organisations in England to submit data for procedures using class IIb and III surgical device and implants and alternative procedures, with the initial focus being Pelvic Floor procedures in direct support of recommendation 7 in the Cumberlege Report. Trust submission of details for all procedures using Class III or Class IIb implantable medical devices and details of comparable/alternative procedures within 10 days of the procedure taking place. Procedure details are to be captured in Theatre/as called by the Surgeon on the day. This information will inform the Pelvic Floor Registry and be used to inform timely and accurate Product recall by the MHRA.
The Trust is working with a third party, Synertec, to create a more effective and efficient paper mailing system as part of our direct healthcare provision. See our Synertec privacy notice.
Across the country, the Discharge to Assess (D2A) model began in March 2020. The intention of D2A has been to reduce unnecessary time spent in hospital for people who are medically able for discharge, and support more people to be discharged to their home.
Through embedding the D2A model and utilising the national discharge funding we are expecting improvements in the following areas:
- Reductions in the length of stay for people in acute hospital care.
- Reductions in length of stay for people in community inpatient rehab care.
- Improvements in people’s outcomes following a period of rehabilitation and recovery.
- Minimisation of the need for long-term care at the end of a person’s rehabilitation.
To be able to achieve the above aims, high level coordination and collaboration across all services involved in a person’s care must occur. This needs to happen from the moment a person is admitted to hospital and continue during and following discharge.
The creation of the Transfer of Care Hub (ToCH) in December 2021 provides a system level (hybrid) team to ensure all relevant services are linked to enable the provision of personalised and coordinated care to best support each individual.
The first phase of implementation of the ToCH, targets the first stages of bringing system wide services together under the ToCH model. This focuses on building relationships; testing key functions of the ToCH and establishing procedures to achieve person-centred, timely and safe discharges for people identified as benefiting from discharge.
The initial members of the ToCH are representatives from:
- Kingston Hospital Discharge Team
- Kingston Social Services
- Richmond Social Services
- Your Healthcare – Integrated Recovery/Home First Team.
The service is being overseen by the Single System Coordinator (employed by HRCH).
The ToCH is physically based in Kingston Hospital, and best practice will be for a representative from the above services to be present daily. However, given the current COVID working practices if a representative is not able to be present they will still be able to join on MS Reams or by telephone.
The ToCH functions as a co-ordinating centre linking all the relevant services for each individual person, so the most appropriate care and support can be provided. This enables: the right people to be involved at the right time, consistent and accurate communication between services, named practitioners providing support in identified roles, a clear plan for discharge and post-discharge support, and the person (and/or their carer) being at the centre of all decision making.
At the heart of the ToCH is a commitment to the “home first” principles:
“Home First principles recognise that every effort should be made to enable each individual to be able to recover, re-able, rehabilitate or die in their own home” (HM Government, 2020).
Processing and sharing of information is essential to the ToCH. This will occur at different stages of the patients journey from admission to discharge, and will continued in the community. It will occur in different contexts (e.g. Community Bed Meeting, ward round, or MDT (multi-disciplinary team) discussion within the ToCH). However, the focus of the data sharing is centralised around the patient and their care and support needs to enable a personalised, timely and safe discharge from hospital to ideally their home.
This will involve discussing information primarily between the patient (and/or their carers) relevant health and social care practitioners. Referrals may also be made to specific voluntary sector organisation (e.g. Age UK Richmond or Stay Well Kingston), but verbal consent will be sort prior to the referral.
In the initial stages of the project, health and social care practitioners will remain working on their own individual IT systems and share information predominately verbally. However, they will also have access to Connecting Your Care (see below for more information), where shared information is available to view.
In the future work will be undertaken to enable access to Kingston Hospital System CRS.
Health and Social care staff require access to your Urgent Care Plan to enable them to provide the best level of care to you.
To allow health and social care staff involved in your care the ability to utilise your Urgent Care Plan (UCP) access is required to be provided to them through the Better ICP platform.
People who have access to your information will only normally have access to that which they need to fulfil their roles. Urgent Care Plan privacy notice
The purpose of the Virtual Ward is to use technology to create an efficient and safe alternative to inpatient care. The Virtual Ward enables people to reduce or eliminate the need for a hospital ward admission, through receiving the monitoring, treatment and acute care they require in their own home. This also allows people to return home earlier from a hospital admission, or ideally prevent admissions into hospital.
The Virtual Ward for Kingston and Richmond is monitored through South West London ICB remote monitoring hub based at Croydon Health Services using VCare monitoring software. The technology supplied to patients can include wearable tech for heart rate and oxygen saturation which automatically upload to the monitoring software. Blood pressure and temperature still have to be taken manually and entered onto the provided tablet. Patients are reviewed daily on the virtual ward wither through the tablet or face to face. Where necessary, District Nurses attend.