Privacy

All information you provide to us is treated confidentially.

All staff handling your information will have received Data Protection training. Where appropriate, staff will have received training in Records Management/Storage.

Information may be collected when you attend a donation session, when you telephone, write or email NIBTS. It will also be collected when you register as a donor, via our website.

When you enrol as a donor, your personal details will be recorded:

• Name
• Address
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Telephone Number
• Email address
• Where you would like to donate

In addition to your personal details, your electronic donor record will include details of

• Where and when you attend a donation session.
• Reasons why you may not have been able to donate.  Information regarding travel, which may affect your eligibility to donate.
• Results of tests routinely carried out on your blood.
• Blood group information.
• Correspondence sent to you.

Every time you attend a blood donation session, a Session Slip and Donor Health Check Questionnaire are completed. These are kept for a minimum of 30 years as a legal requirement of the Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005

• Primarily to ensure your safety, and that of any patients who may receive your donation.
• To select the correct number of donors, for a blood donation session, and maintain adequate supplies of all blood groups.
• To keep you up to date with any changes to a planned donation session. Texting is the quickest, and most efficient method of contact.
• When blood stocks are below the required minimum level, we may contact you.
• Occasionally we are asked to obtain a donation for a specific patient. Using your Blood group information, donation history and personal details will give us the ability to contact you directly.
• For audit purposes, and to improve our service. We routinely review the reasons why you may have been deferred from donating to ensure that our guidelines are followed correctly.

To ensure that you receive invitations to blood donor sessions, your details are sent to an external provider who generate the letters on our behalf.   This encrypted, electronic, information is sent via Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), and retained for 7 days. It is then electronically shredded, using industry accredited software rendering it unrecoverable.

In addition to the above, information will only be shared, outside of NIBTS, where we have a legal obligation to do so e.g. notifiable diseases.

Occasionally we may ask our donors to take part in research or surveys. Your consent will always be obtained, and personal identifiers removed.

No other organisations have access to our database.

WE DO NOT PROVIDE YOUR DETAILS TO ANY OTHER THIRD PARTIES SUCH AS DIRECT MARKETING COMPANIES.

The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you, the donor, rights regarding your information. These rights will be enhanced when the General Data Protection Regulation comes into force on the 25^th May 2018. You have the right to request a copy of the information we hold about you, the right to request amendment of this information where you believe it to be incorrect and the right to object to how we process your information. Contact details are provided for each of these rights.