Student Health Records -Data Protection Statement

Why we collect information about you

The Health and Wellbeing team are required by the Data Protection Act (2018) to maintain records about your health and any treatment or support you receive from the College. These records help to provide you with the best possible support.

Data is processed for the purpose of providing health and wellbeing related services to students; this includes monitoring the quality of provision. In carrying out this role, the Health and Wellbeing team will collect information about you that helps them to respond to your queries, provide support and/or secure specialist services. This data may be in written form and/or digital form. 

For further information about the roles and people who comprise the Health and Wellbeing Team please see the following link: Student health & wellbeing | St Catharine's College, Cambridge.

The data that the Health and Wellbeing Team hold on students may be shared on a need-to-know basis with other authorised staff within the College. 
The Health and Wellbeing Team work closely with the Tutors to ensure the College can support students in a collaborative way. It may be useful, at times, for the Health and Wellbeing Team to share relevant information with the Tutors, however, explicit consent from each student will be sought to do this, unless there are exceptional circumstances. 

Database searches are carried out at least annually to identify students affected by certain conditions and or disabilities that have been declared on their electronic health questionnaires. This is so that the Health and Wellbeing Team can contact those students and provide health promotion advice and invite those students to attend an appointment for further assessment of their condition and their potential needs whilst a student of St Catharine’s College.

Details we collect about you

The records the Health and Wellbeing Team may hold about you include the following: your name, address and date of birth, emergency contact details, course of study, college year, and matriculation term and year. They will also contain more sensitive information about your health, any contact you have had with a member of the Health and Wellbeing team such as appointments and consultations, and the outcomes of those appointments.  

The Health and Wellbeing Team are provided with a list of new students from the College each academic year which is stored on the system. More specific health data is collected directly from students via a health questionnaire prior to starting your course of study.

How your information is kept safe and confidential 

The health records that the Health and Wellbeing Team use may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both. These paper records can be in the form of handwritten notes taken by a Health and Wellbeing Team member in an appointment with you, which are then transferred onto the secure system and the physical copy is shredded. A combination of working practices and technology are used to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. The Health and Wellbeing Team ensures that information is kept in secure locations which are protected by appropriate security.. The College uses an external commercial company to store and process it’s data. Further details about Cliniko’s services can be found here: Cliniko Security

The Health & Wellbeing Team uses your records to facilitate the support you receive. Information held about you may also be used to help protect the health of the public and or other students, for instance during an outbreak of a communicable disease such as, but not limited to an outbreak of norovirus, Scarlet Fever and Meningitis. During such outbreaks, the Health and Wellbeing Team may consult the University Advisory Group on Communicable Diseases and or Public Health England or other statutory body. Your data, in this instance, can be used to help provide individual support to you or provide guidance on how to support the health of the College community in the case of an outbreak.  

Sharing Information in the interests of the College and the student

At the start of your time at St Catharine’s College, your consent will be sought to share your photo ID and specific health information if you are diabetic, epileptic and or carry an adrenalin auto injector. If you are diabetic and or carry an adrenaline auto injector, this information will be shared with the Porters’ Lodge and the catering department; this is so that during a first aid emergency you can be easily identified. If you are epileptic, this information will be shared with the Porters’ Lodge. You have the right not to consent but you need to be aware that this may affect the First Aid care you receive. 

The Health and Wellbeing Team will only ever use or pass on information about you if it is reasonably believed that others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. Information will not be disclosed to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (such as risk of serious harm to yourself or others).). You can object to your personal information being shared with other any other person outside of the Health and Wellbeing Team but you should be aware that the College can reject this if the processing can be justified. If you refuse consent to share information outside of the Health and Wellbeing Team, this may, in some instances, affect the support you are able to receive. If this limits the support that you can receive this will be explained to you at the time you object.

To ensure that safeguarding matters are managed appropriately, access to identifiable information will be shared in some limited circumstances where it is legally required for the safety of the individuals concerned.  The College’s safeguarding policy and procedures will be followed. 
Record Retention

Student records are held by the Health and Wellbeing Team for a minimum of 8 years.

Change of details

It is important that you tell the Health and Wellbeing Team if any of your details such as your name or address have changed so that your records can be kept as accurate and up to date as possible.

Your rights

Everybody has the right to see or have a copy of data held in the Health and Wellbeing Team that can identify you, with some exceptions. You do not need to give a reason to see your data. 

For all rights and access requests, in the first instance, we ask to you contact the College Data Protection Lead ). The College Data Protection Lead can then request that a member of the Health and Wellbeing Team obtains and discloses the personal data that you have requested. (data.protection@caths.cam.ac.uk

Further information can be found on the St Catharine’s website (making a Subject Access Request). Under special circumstances, some information may be withheld.

You have the right: to ask us for access to, rectification or, erasure of your information; to restrict processing (pending correction or deletion); to object to communications or direct marketing; and to ask for the transfer of your information electronically to a third party (data portability). Some of these rights are not automatic, and we reserve the right to discuss with you why we might not comply with a request from you to exercise them.
You retain the right at all time to lodge a complaint about our management of your personal data with the Information Commissioner’s Office at Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, SK9 5AF (https://ico.org.uk/concerns/).

What happens if you are unhappy with the service the team provides

If you have concerns or are unhappy about any of the services provided by the Health and Wellbeing Team please contact the Health and Wellbeing Team (wellbeing.team@caths.cam.ac.uk) or your Tutor in the first instance, as often concerns can be dealt with informally.  If concerns remain, further issues can be reported to the Senior Tutor, or by following the Student Complaints Procedure.

Review and Changes to this statement: This statement replaces the St Catharine’s Health Centre statements on Confidentiality, Information Sharing and Complaints procedure. 

This statement is reviewed every two years. Last review July 2024.