Protection of Personal Information

The Information Governance Group at NNUH supports EPA Pathology services in the way it processes or handles information. This covers personal and patient information as well as corporate information.

There are six areas of information Governance:

1. Common law duty of confidentiality
2. Data Protection
3. Freedom of Information
4. Information Security
5. Record Management
6. Data Quality

All NHS employees are bound by the Common Law Duty of Confidentiality, placing a legal duty on all staff working for the Trust to keep all information provided to the Trust and themselves as employees of the Trust by its patients completely confidential. This legal obligation is further enforced through the codes of practice of staff respective professions and by virtue of their contract with the Trust.

All staff have a legal obligation to ensure that any confidential information they come into contact with is kept secure and confidential at all times. Where a member of staff receives a request for information relating to an individual, staff must ensure that any disclosure of confidential information is fully justified and in compliance with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018, or Common Law Duty of Confidentiality

All EPA Pathology services staff undertake annual mandatory Information Governance training to ensure they are familiar with the legislation and Trust and departmental policies.

Where necessary the laboratory will have information available for patients and users that includes an explanation of the clinical procedure to be performed to enable informed consent.

The importance of provision of patient and family information, where relevant for example for interpreting genetic examination results, shall be explained to the patient and user.

Please click here for more information on how EPA assures the safety of its patients.
For more information on how each department further assures patient safety click here