Data protection during coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

As you may already know, Spire Healthcare is very proud to be supporting the NHS in its response to the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic (the “Pandemic”). During these unprecedented times, Spire Healthcare’s main priority is the health and safety of our patients, colleagues and the wider community as well as supporting the NHS in responding to the Pandemic. Each of our hospitals is working in collaboration with their local NHS trusts to ensure we can provide the help they require, when it is needed.

We have issued these messages to patients across our hospitals explaining how we will share personal information about you (“personal data”) during the Pandemic to ensure that we are transparent in how we process your personal data and what delays you may experience during this exceptional time. We will keep these messages under review and update them if we need to.

If you are a patient at a Spire hospital during the Pandemic, the healthcare services you receive at the hospital may be provided by Spire Healthcare or the NHS or, in some cases, a mix of both. As part of this, Spire Healthcare may need to share your personal data with the NHS and other regulatory and government bodies.  

Spire’s Privacy Notice explains what personal data we collect and hold, how we use your personal data and how we protect it. It also explains what rights you have in relation to your personal data and specifically your health data (view Spire's Privacy Notice). We have updated our online patient privacy notice to reflect the ways in which we may be processing your personal data during the Pandemic. 

We would like you to know that when Spire Healthcare and our healthcare professionals provide your healthcare services at a Spire hospital we will collect, and use your personal data in accordance with our and their data protection obligations under the data protection legislation, the duty of confidentiality and Spire’s Privacy Notice. We will also comply with these obligations if we share your personal data with the NHS and other regulatory and government bodies.

When the NHS and its healthcare professionals provide your healthcare services at a Spire hospital, the privacy notice of the relevant NHS Trust will apply. In those circumstances we may still capture limited personal data about you sufficient to record that you attended our premises in line with the purposes set out in our privacy policy.  

During the Pandemic, Spire Healthcare’s main priority is the health and safety of our patients, colleagues and the wider community as well as supporting the NHS.

Therefore, due to the current circumstances, if you submit a Subject Access Request (SAR) or other Data Subjects Rights request, please be aware that you may experience a delay in us responding to your request.

At this current time we are unable to collect any correspondence sent via post. If you need to get in touch regarding a SAR or other information request, please contact us via email at sar@spirehealthcare.com

If you have any concerns or questions about our use of your personal data, you can contact our Data Protection Officer via email at dataprotection@spirehealthcare.com