When you use our services, information about the care you receive is recorded in your health record. This information is required to make sure that we give you the best possible care and treatment.

Advice and guidance is provided to care providers to ensure that adult and children’s safeguarding matters are managed appropriately. Access to identifiable information will be shared in some limited circumstances where it’s legally required for the safety of the individuals concerned.

NWAS work with provider and commissioning organisations to ensure effective governance and to learn from Serious Incidents. The Francis Report (February 2013) emphasises that providers have a responsibility for ensuring the quality of health services provided.

Information collected about you to deliver your healthcare may also be used to assist with:
• Making sure your care is of a high standard
• Reporting and investigation of complaints, claims, and untoward incidents
• Reporting events to the appropriate authorities when we are required to do so by law
• Testing / implementing new systems or processes. In such instances we will ensure that anonymised or minimal information is used
• Assessing your condition against a set of risk criteria to ensure you are receiving the best possible care
• Helping train staff and support research
• Using statistical information to look after the health and wellbeing of the general public and planning services to meet the needs of the population
• Preparing statistics on our performance to the Department of Health and other regulatory bodies
• Supporting the funding of your care

There are circumstances in which members of the duty officer cohort will be required to access the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system. On all such occasions, the purpose for accessing the system must be clearly justified and directly related to the information required for the task in hand.

Routine access should be undertaken using non–patient‑identifiable data wherever possible. Accessing information in this way enables duty officers to review operational performance metrics—such as resource availability—without viewing unnecessary personal data. In these instances, the only information that should be viewed is the status of the EPR record (for example, whether it has been signed and synchronised). This provides real‑time assurance regarding the readiness of a resource to be deployed to subsequent incidents.

There may be situations where duty officers are required to access patient‑identifiable information. Such access must be strictly limited to circumstances involving immediate safety concerns, where viewing specific personal data is essential for informed and timely decision‑making. Any access of this nature must be proportionate, necessary, and aligned with information governance requirements.