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Membership privacy notice

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Who are we?

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (the Trust) is a public benefit corporation established under the National Health Service Act 2006.

As such it is required to have public and staff members to provide public accountability. Members have the opportunity to learn more about, and to contribute to the development of our services by sharing their views.

The Trust provides high quality elective and emergency care services to meet the day-to-day needs of our local communities. In addition, we also provide high quality specialist services in a number of medical areas. We also work with other local health providers to provide a range of services in community settings.

Information:

This Privacy Notice is specifically for members. We have separate privacy notices for patients and staff.

Why do we collect your information?

As a Foundation Trust we are accountable to our local community, staff, who all have the right to become members of the Trust.

On becoming a member, you will provide the Trust with some personal data so that we can contact you in relation to Trust membership matters, in accordance with our obligations under the NHS Act 2006 and Health and Social Care Act 2012.

We have a legal duty to ensure that our public membership is representative of those eligible for such membership. We also have public sector equality duties under the Equalities Act 2010.

What information do we collect?

Category Purpose
Identifiers contains details that identify an individual. This may include but is not limited to your name and title. To ensure that we have accurate information and to maintain a statutory register of membership.
Contact information may include your address, telephone number, or email. For communications about membership, providing newsletters and other information about Trust activity, and seeking members views on Trust proposals and developments.

Postcode allocates our public members to the appropriate local constituency.
Protected characteristics such as age, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, relationship status, ethnic origin, religion or belief and disability. Required for equality monitoring to ensure that the Trusts membership is representative of the local population

The only protected characteristic which we do not capture information for is pregnancy as it is difficult to capture a contemporary picture.
Service personnel and families. We have been named a Veteran Aware Hospitals Trust in recognition of our commitment to improving NHS care for veterans, reservists, members of the armed forces and their families. By providing this detail we can ensure you are informed, involved and represented.
Caring responsibilities. We want to promote the health and independence of carers by involving them. By providing this detail we can ensure you are informed, involved and represented.
Language preference. To ensure we communicate in the best format for you.
Employment category. Allocates our staff members to the appropriate staff constituency.
Information:

Member records are kept entirely separate from any patient or employment record we might hold.

The legal basis for processing members data is Article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation. It falls within the official authority of the Trust as laid down in the NHS Act 2006.

For protected characteristic data, the exemption in Act 9(2)(g) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and Paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 Data Protection Act 2018 apply.

Processing is for reasons of substantial public interest, compliance with the duty under the Equalities Act 2010.

Where do we receive information about you from?

All of the information the Trust collects about public members is received directly from you when you first become a member of the Trust by completing and signing a membership application form, or when you update your member records.

This information is held on a secure membership database system which is hosted by an external provider who act as data processor for the Trust under contract.

Information about staff members is taken from ESR unless the staff have opted out of membership.

Who we share information with?

The Trust is legally obliged to keep a public register of its members available for inspection by members of the public, free of charge at all reasonable times. Any member of the public can request for and receive a copy of or an extract from the register.

The public register will show the name and the constituency to which the member belongs. A member can request not to be included in the public register when joining or at any time by emailing ghn-tr.membership@nhs.net. Details of those who have opted-out will not be included in the registers available for inspection.

We may use a data processor (a reputable independent electoral service provider) for governor elections. For this purpose, we may use your name and contact details, in order for you to be able to execute your right as a public member to submit a nomination form or vote in governor elections. We ensure that there is an agreement in place with our chosen electoral service provider to ensure they do not share your information with any other organisation.

Information on protected characteristics where supplied, will only be used for providing aggregated and statistical information and reports and such data relating to any individual will not be processed.

Members’ data will not routinely be used or shared for any other purposes, including internally, unless an exemption applies e.g. to comply with a court order.

International transfers

Under no circumstances will your personal data held on our membership database be transferred outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). This ensures that your data protection rights are protected through laws standardised across the Area.

How long do we keep your information?

Your membership personal information will be kept until you decide that you no longer wish to be a member of the Trust and thereafter for 1 year for audit purposes only. Following this member data will be removed from the database and related servers.

After a governor election, the votes are retained by the returning officer for a few weeks in case there is a dispute about the election and then destroyed. This requirement is set out in the Trust’s election rules.

What rights do you have?

You have a number of rights under Data Protection Legislation. In summary, your rights are:

  • right to be informed
  • right of access
  • right to rectification
  • right to erasure
  • right to object
  • right to restrict processing

Right to be informed

You have a right to be informed about uses of your information with an emphasis on transparency. This notice ensures that your right to be informed is achieved.

Right of access

You have a right to receive:

  • confirmation of what information is recorded about you
  • confirmation of how your information is used
  • access to your information

You may be required to provide proof of identification and may be asked to specify exactly what information you require.

Right to rectification

Rectification refers to correcting inaccuracies or incomplete data which is held by the Trust. This applies to factual information only, such as change of name, address, email or telephone number.

If your details need to be rectified, please (public members only) log in to your record at https://secure.membra.co.uk/MemberPortal/Glos or, in any case contact the membership team at ghn-tr.membership@nhs.net.

Right to erasure

While you are a member, we must hold your membership details. You can request that your information is deleted from the membership database but in doing so, you will no longer be a member of the Trust.

Upon receipt of such a request you will be removed from the register of members, and will receive no further communications. Your membership details will however be retained for 1 year for audit purposes only. Following this member data will be removed from the database and related servers.

If this is the case please contact the membership team on ghn-tr.membership@nhs.net.

Right to object

You have the legal right to object to the processing of your information if there are grounds relating to your own particular situation, including where information is likely to be used for:

  • marketing
  • scientific or historical research
  • statistical purposes

To object to processing, please contact the data protection officer, details below. Please note however that we do not use member data for marketing.

Right to restrict processing

The right to restrict processing means that if you have disputed the accuracy of information, objected to its use or require data due for destruction to be maintained for a legal claim, you can have the data stored by the Trust but no other uses are then permitted until the dispute is settled.

To request restriction to processing, please contact the data protection officer, details below.

Concerns about the use of your information

You can contact the Trust’s data protection officer.

If we can’t resolve your concern, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office

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