What is Population Health Management?

Population Health Management (or PHM for short) is aimed at improving the health of an entire population. It is being implemented across the NHS and this Practice is taking part in a project extending across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

PHM is about improving the physical and mental health outcomes and wellbeing of people and making sure that access to services is fair, timely and equal. It helps to reduce the occurrence of ill-health and looks at all the wider factors that affect health and care.

The PHM approach requires health care organisations to work together with communities and partner agencies, for example, GP practices, community service providers, hospitals and other health and social care providers.

These organisations will share and combine information with each other in order to get a view of health and services for the population in a particular area. This information sharing is subject to robust security arrangements.

How will my Personal Data be used?

The information will include personal data about your health care. This information will be combined and anything that can identify you (like your name or NHS Number) will be removed and replaced with a unique code.

This means that the people working with the data will only see the code and cannot see which patient the information relates to.

If we see that an individual might benefit from some additional care or support, we will send the information back to your GP or hospital provider and they will use the code to identify you and offer you relevant services.

Examples of how the information could be used for a number of healthcare related activities include;

• improving the quality and standards of care provided
• research into the development of new treatments
• preventing illness and diseases
• monitoring safety
• planning services

Who will my Personal Data be shared with?

Your GP and other care providers will send the information they hold on their systems to the South West and Central Commissioning Support Unit. SWC CSU are part of NHS England. More information can be found here https://www.scwcsu.nhs.uk/

SWC CSU will link all the information together. Your GP and other care providers will then review this information and make decisions about the whole population or particular patients that might need additional support.

SWC CSU work in partnership with a company called Optum to help them with this work. Both SWC CSU and Optum are legally obliged to protect your information and maintain confidentiality in the same way that your GP or hospital provider is. More information about Optum can be found here www.optum.co.uk.

Is using my Personal Data in this way lawful?

Health and Social Care Providers are permitted by data protection law to use personal information where it is ‘necessary for medical purposes’. This includes caring for you directly as well as management of health services more generally.

Some of the work that happens at a national level with your personal information is enabled by other legislation. Sharing and using your information in this way helps to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations. Confidential patient information about your health and care is only used like this where allowed by law and, in the majority of cases, anonymised data is used so that you cannot be identified.

For more information, speak to our Data Protection Officer who will be happy to help with any queries you may have.

What will happen to my Personal Data when the Personal Health Management project is finished?

The PHM project is time-limited to 20 weeks. This will provide enough time to evaluate the benefits of PHM. Once the project has completed all personal information processed by SWC CSU / Optum will be securely destroyed. This will not affect any personal information held by your GP or other health or social care providers.

Can I object to my Personal Data being used as part of the Personal Health Management project?

You have a right to object to your personal information being used in this way. If you do choose to ‘opt out’ please contact our Data Protection Officer in the first instance. If you are happy for your personal information to be used as part of this project then you do not need to do anything further, although you do have the right to change your mind at any time.

You also have a number of other rights relating to how your personal information is used. See our main privacy policy for more information [insert link to practice website].

If you still have concerns, you can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office directly at the following link https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/your-personal-information-concerns/.