The following statement concerns the processing of health-related data supplied by our donors. It should be read in conjunction with our privacy notice which can be accessed here https://www.nottinghamhospitalscharity.org.uk/privacy-policy.
Our supporters sometimes tell us about their medical conditions. We understand that this information is sensitive and classified as special category personal data under data protection legislation. Whilst we do not actively ask for this information, as a hospitals charity, working in close partnership with Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, some of our supporters disclose their medical information to us, assuming that we are already privy to this information.
It is very difficult to eliminate this information from our filing systems because people provide this to us in a variety of online and offline methods, for example, via email, donation forms, letters, cards, online platforms and by various other means.
We do not record medical information in a systematic way. We do not profile donors based on their health or medical conditions, however, we may use the donor’s giving history to target them with particular appeals, e.g. we may write to a donor who has given a gift to the breast institute in the past year with information about a breast cancer appeal, but we will not target donors based on their medical history.
We do not add health information to our database in such a way that it could be used to profile donors, now or in the future. All medical information recorded has been freely given to us by the donor as an explanation for their giving, and our only use of it is to tailor our acknowledgement messages appropriately and sensitively.
We have given much thought to how we might remove all health information from our systems, or if it would be appropriate to write to donors and ask for their permission to file the information that they have given to us. Our conclusion is that most donors would not be surprised to know that the information they have given to us is retained, and that it could cause more distress or annoyance if we were to write to them retrospectively.
Whilst it is not therefore practical for us to routinely remove health data from our records, Donors retain the right to ask us to delete any information from their file that we do not need to retain for legal reasons, such as for taxation or gift aid purposes.
Agreed by Senior Management Team