Privacy Statement
At My University Hospitals Sussex we are committed to protecting your privacy and right to confidentiality. We comply with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018 and NHS requirements concerning confidentiality and information security standards.
This statement explains how we use any personal information we collect about you.
1. Who we are
My University Hospitals Sussex is the dedicated charity for University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust and is a registered charity (Registered Charity Number 1050864). We are committed to improving hospital facilities and supporting projects that are over and above what can be provided through core government funding. The Data Protection Act requires every organisation that processes personal information to be registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. My University Hospitals Sussex is included within the broader University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust for which the NHS provider licence number is 110147, and the NHS organisational code is RYR.
2. What information do we collect about you?
The types of information we might collect includes names, addresses, next of kin or family connections if made known to us, email, telephone details, dates of birth, communication preferences and things you may be interested in. We also hold records of your donations and fundraising efforts alongside the communications that we have had with you.
This approach helps us to be efficient with our fundraising efforts through cost effective, relevant, appropriate and timely communications. The purpose of these communications is to keep you up-to-date with the latest charity news and future developments at your local hospital. We also want to let you know how your donations and support help those we care for, and to highlight other ways in which you can choose to support our work including attending charity events, raffles, cash appeals, regular giving, community & challenge events and corporate engagement.
If you have previously supported My University Hospitals Sussex to help us improve care for patients, we will send you a communications preference form to invite you to be added to our mailing list. If you would like to save paper and be contacted by email or telephone, we are only allowed to do so if we have your written consent from you (under GDPR law). You have the right at any time to request a change in the communications that you receive and to stop them if they’re no longer required. Please contact us to request a communications preference form, or to make us aware of your needs by calling us on 01273 664708 or emailing uhsussex.charity@nhs.net.
You also have the right to request that we do not profile or screen your personal information using marketing agencies. If you do not want your information used in this way, please call 01273 664708 or email uhsussex.charity@nhs.net.
Please be assured that My University Hospitals Sussex never has and never will share, swap or sell your personal information with any other organisation. We are extremely grateful for your support and will always respect your right to privacy.
It is very important, however, that we continue to raise awareness of our charitable status and need for voluntary donations to enable staff to provide the outstanding healthcare we all need, fund the very latest equipment, and ensure patients have access to the best and most modern facilities.
3. How do you use my information?
We will use your data to provide you with the information, products or services you have requested, for administrative and statistical purposes, to fundraise and to further our charitable aims and comply with the law.
We will highlight at the time of capturing your information if it is to be used for different and non-compatible purposes to those described above or those that you would not reasonably expect.
We may need to share your personal information with our service providers. This will be done only where necessary and only after strict due diligence processes have been followed to ensure that those we work with abide by rigorous data security guidelines.
Any information that is shared with service providers will be through security systems like NHS mail, secure file transfer portals and use of encryption. Strict policies are followed relating to the length of time that information can be held for and as to the safe destruction of the information, once it has been used for the purpose intended.
There may be occasions where personal sensitive information is anonymised before use for administrative and statistical purposes at My University Hospitals Sussex. When information is anonymised, it means we protect your confidentiality by removing any information that could identify you as an individual.
We will not share, sell or swap your personal information with any organisation or third party for their own marketing or fundraising purposes.
4. How do you protect my personal information?
My University Hospitals Sussex takes information governance and security seriously. We have robust technical and organisational systems in place to manage and protect your personal information. These measures include data encryption, up-to-date security software to ensure confidentiality and to guard against unauthorised access, unlawful processing, accidental loss, damage or destruction.
5. Marketing and Consent
We would like to send you information that may be of interest to you and may help to further our charitable aims, to keep you up-to-date about how we spend your donations, to provide you with news, updates or information about our latest developments.
As a registered charity, we rely heavily on the ability to communicate with our supporters and those within our catchment area to help raise the much-needed funds every year to enable us to support hospital projects beyond core NHS funding. This includes providing state-of-the-art medical equipment, improving treatment facilities for patients, supporting staff development, and enhancing the hospital environment for all.
We will only send you information that is relevant to you, and you have the right to update your communication preferences or stop communications at any time by calling 01273 664708 or emailing uhsussex.charity@nhs.net. We will also endeavour to provide this statement on all marketing communications.
You can discuss your communication requirements further and set preferences about the information you wish to receive by calling 01273 664708 or emailing uhsussex.charity@nhs.net.
Access to information:
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you. If you would like a copy of some or all of your personal information, please write to:
My University Hospitals Sussex, c/o the Post Room, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Eastern Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 5BE.
We want to make sure that your information is accurate and up to date. You have the right to correct or remove information that you think is inaccurate.
6. Cookies
Cookies are small pieces of data which are stored on your computer by your web browser. They are used to improve your online experience by almost every website, including ours. This is why we feel it is important that you understand how cookies work, what they are for and when they are being used.
Cookies are small text files stored on your computer, smartphone, tablet or other device used to access the internet. Cookies are useful as they allow a website to recognise the device you are using.
At My University Hospitals Sussex, we use cookies for a variety of reasons, such as to display our website in different size fonts, to monitor how many people have visited our website, or to display YouTube videos and social links such as Facebook. More information about cookies can be found at www.allaboutcookiesorg.
My University Hospitals Sussex does not use cookies to gather contact information about you and we do not share, sell or swap your personal information with any other third party for their marketing or fundraising purposes.
We do use ‘analytics’ cookies to help us make our website better for those who visit it regularly. They help us to work out what visitors like and don’t like, and how we can improve things for you.
When we include links to, and feeds from, other websites, please bear in mind that they will have their own privacy and cookie policies that will govern their use of any information you submit. We recommend you read their policies as My University Hospitals Sussex is not responsible or liable for their privacy policies.
You can manage your cookie preferences for our website, or any other websites, by using your browser settings. Your browser’s ‘help’ function will show you how to do this. However, please remember that cookies are often used to enable and improve certain functions on our website. If you choose to switch certain cookies off, it could affect how our website works.
7. Changes to Privacy Statement
We keep our privacy statement under regular review and will update this statement annually or when required. This privacy statement was last updated on 1st April 2023.
8. How to contact us
You can contact My University Hospitals Sussex by writing to us at: My University Hospitals Sussex, c/o the Post Room, Royal Sussex County Hospital, Eastern Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 5BE.
You can also call us on 01273 664708 or email us at uhsussex.charity@nhs.net.
