Privacy Notice for Young People

• What you are about to read is called a Privacy Notice
• It tells you about the information we have about you
• It also tells you what we do with it and who we share it with

Who are Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust?

You may know us as your hospital.

• We are part of the National Health Service (NHS) in England
• We provide you with care when you feel poorly – that is the main role of the NHS
• We do this for your local neighbourhood – that maybe, St Helens, Knowsley, Southport or Ormskirk

Meet Violet and Oliver

They have recently visited us at the hospital.

Violet visited her doctor who sent her to us to look at a dodgy mole. Violet was an outpatient which meant she only visited us for a short amount of time and went home that day.

Oliver was riding his bike, hit a bump in the road and fell off his bike – poor Oliver became an inpatient, which meant he had to stay in for a few days as he had broken his leg.

Whilst Violet and Oliver where in the hospital we collected information about them and now hold it in case we need it in the future.

What information did we collect?

We needed to know Violet’s and Oliver’s full name, their home address, a phone number, date of birth, names of family – this is so we could make a record and this makes sure we have the right person when we are treating them.

You may not realise this but this information is known as ‘personal information’ – it is anything that can identify you – so all the personal information we collected about Violet and Oliver tells us about who they are. 

You must be careful when giving anyone your personal information as sometimes people you don’t know can use your personal information to trick you or put you in uncomfortable situations. That’s why it is important to never give out your personal information to anyone you don’t know! You should only give this information to people you trust like your parents, teachers or hospital staff at the hospital.

Violet and Oliver know that personal information is private to them so remember your personal information is your private property should only be shared with people you trust.

Do we have any other information about you?

Yes – to form a picture and make sure we look after properly we will also need to know:

• Your Race
• Health conditions or disabilities you may have
• Any health and safety concerns

These are known as ‘special types of information’ or special category data which means we need to make sure we protect this information too.

Here at the hospital we are trusted like your parents and teachers and you can share your personal information with us. If we don’t have this information when you come into the hospital it would make it difficult for us to look after you properly. It also helps us to contact you if we need to see you again. 

The legal bit!

There are laws in place to make sure we look after your personal and special category information and keep it safe. The main law is known as the UK General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR for short. If we don’t look after your information in line with this law we could get in serious trouble and also you may not trust us.

Under this law the hospital must have a good reason to collect your information and we do! Our reason is because we are a hospital and, we are also known as a Public Authority so we serve the public with something they might need, in this case a hospital service.

We have to keep your data safe and secure and not share with anyone unless they are trusted.

That’s why we take steps to make sure your personal information is kept under lock and key with only those staff who are helping you in hospital allowed to look at it.

The law says that we must:

• Keep your information safe at all times
• Make sure only those involved in your care access your information
• Not keep information about you for longer than needed
• Destroy your information securely when we have finished using your information
• Make sure the information is correct
• Let you know what information we hold, and why we need it

Will we share your personal information?

Yes but only in some cases and this will be with other trusted people. We will only do this if we need to. We may share your personal information with doctors, nurses, ambulance services, your parents, the police or which school you attend to help us to help you.

It's your personal information – and you have rights!

• You have the right to ask for a copy of the information we hold about you

• You have the right to let us know if we have made a mistake and ask us to correct it
• You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner (who make sure we are following the rules and the law) if you think we are not looking after your personal information

You have rights to keep your personal information your private property and where you think we are using or sharing your information in a wrong way you must contact us.

We take protecting your personal information and privacy very seriously and will make sure:

• Only our staff who need to see your information are able to do so
• They use your information in strict confidence and it is not shared with anyone who doesn’t need to know
• Use computer systems that store your data that have been checked

By the way both Violet and Oliver are doing well. Violet had to attend one more outpatient appointment and the nasty mole was removed, so feels much better. Oliver started riding his bike 2 months later but enjoyed having his cast signed by all his friends and has kept it!

For more information on how we use your personal information please contact the hospital’s Information Governance Team at:

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Jubilee Court
Academy Site
Waterside
St Helens
WA9 1TT

Or Email us via IG@midmerseyda.nhs.uk

This page was last updated March 2025 and will be reviewed in March 2026.