Privacy Notice: School of Medicine
Please see below for the University of Central Lancashire’s School of Medicine privacy notice.
For more details please contact the Information Governance Manager.
The University’s student privacy notice can be found online or searching ‘privacy notice’ from the University homepage. The privacy notice provides general information about how the University will use your information and about your rights under data protection legislation and should be read in conjunction with the information below.
It is necessary to share Fitness to Practise information between schools for health care professionals in order to protect the public from risk. In the interests of patient and public safety, and to prevent fraudulent applications to courses, which lead to entry to a registered profession in the UK, when you apply for your course UCLan will process your information including your name, date of birth, and sex, and check this against the Excluded Student Database maintained by the Medical Schools Council (MSC), in order to verify that another institution has not previously found that you are unfit to practise as a healthcare professional. Data protection legislation permits us to process your personal data for this purpose because the processing is necessary for a task carried out in the public interest, in order to ensure patient safety (Article 6(1)(e) General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR)).
As well as the checks mentioned above, we may also add information about you to the Excluded Students Database. If there is a Fitness to Practise outcome against you in the future, this information and a copy of the decision will be included on the Excluded Student Database. The information will then be accessible to other schools with courses leading to entry to a registered profession in the UK. It is used only for proper Fitness to Practise purposes to protect patients and the public, and to prevent fraudulent applications to study. Continued study is conditional on you having disclosed any previous or emerging Fitness to Practise outcomes against you. You have a right of access to any information held about you on the database and to correct any factual errors. If you wish to exercise this right, you can contact your Fitness to Practise Lead. The data controller of this database is the Medical Schools Council (MSC). Information about their security measures and retention periods is set out in the Protocol for the Excluded Students Database.
The information that will be added to the database will include:
- Known name(s) including any changes of name by Deed Poll
- Current gender and gender at birth
- Date of birth
- Name of the school which the student was excluded from
- UCAS ID
- Photograph
- A copy of the outcomes letter at the end of Fitness to Practise proceedings
Any positive feedback, professionalism lapses, wellbeing and safety issues during your time as a student will be communicated using the Reporting Form incident reporting process. The outcomes of such reporting procedures will be made to relevant academic staff and supervisors. Depending upon the nature of the issue it may also form part of your portfolio.
We will share information such as name, student ID, email address and photograph with relevant Health Education providers such as GP practices, dental practices, hospitals and hospices involved with your training on the programme. This is to ensure that the placement provider knows who you are, and you are able to undertake your placements. Information is shared because it is necessary for the performance of your student contract, to enable you to undertake placements which are part of your course (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR). We share name, student ID number and bank account details for Physician Associate students securely to Health Education North West in order for students to receive their travel grant. We share this information on the basis of Article 6(1)(f) GDPR because it is in the legitimate interests of Health Education North West to receive this information to administer your travel grant, which will benefit you.
For students on our Optometry course we will additionally share your information related to the licensing and registration exams with the College of Optometrists and the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO). Information is shared because it is necessary for the performance of your student contract, to enable you to become registered, which is part of your course (Article6(1)(b) GDPR).
We will share your information including your name and clothing size with our external partners for the supply of uniforms for you to be able to undertake clinical placements. Information is shared because it is necessary for the performance of your student contract, to enable you to undertake placements which are part of your course (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR).
We will also share information with the regulatory bodies such as the General Medical, and Optical Councils in relation to your progress on the course, including withdrawal or repeating years, and to confirm or amend information as necessary. This may include changes to data that you submit to any regulatory body. Information is shared because it is necessary for the performance of your student contract, to enable you to undertake placements which are part of your course (Article6(1)(b) GDPR).
Lectures and workshops in the School will occasionally be linked by video conferencing between single/multiple locations. Video images include members of staff and, occasionally, students. Lectures may be recorded and uploaded to Blackboard for future use and reference. All teaching sessions or discussions delivered online may be recorded including comments by students. Any online delivery maybe recorded for future reference. The recordings are not edited and are stored for subsequent access by staff and students via the electronic learning environment. Participating in the programme at UCLan will involve sessions of this type. Video recordings will only be of the presentations and not of students. We process any student personal data incidentally captured in these recordings on the basis that the processing is necessary for our legitimate interests (making the lectures available as student reference material) and does not unduly prejudice your rights and freedoms (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Photographs will, on occasion, be taken during the teaching sessions to be used for marketing purposes. Any students present will be asked to consent to being photographed and consent for those photographs being used for marketing purposes. This is optional and you can decline to be included in these images.
To undertake your course of study you must be assessed for Exposure Prone Procedures. This will ensure that you are able to commence any placement, which is an integral part of the course. The School’s Occupational Health provider will share some information about this assessment with the Occupational Health Service at any placement to ensure you are able to safely carry out each individual placement.
In the event you test positive for any infection likely to put patients or colleagues at risk, we will share this information confidentially with the school, partner health care providers and to the relevant Deanery covering your access to Foundation training programme. This is in order to ensure that you are not put in any situation, which has the potential to cause harm to patients or colleagues.
This information constitutes special category data under the GDPR. The lawful bases from the GDPR on which we rely to process this information for these purposes are Article 6(1)(b) (processing is necessary for the performance of your student contract) and Article 9(2)(h) (processing is necessary for preventive or occupational medicine etc.) by virtue of section 10 and Schedule 1(2) Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA).
If you successfully complete your course in Medicine, information will be transferred to the UK Foundation Programme (UKFP) as you transition from medical school to employment as a doctor in training. You will be required to complete a Supporting Trainees in Entering Practice (STEP) form to identify areas where you may need more support as you enter the first year of your Foundation Programme.
The STEP process aims to highlight any areas of additional support that you may require during the Foundation Programme. In particular, you are asked for information regarding your health and welfare and educational progress. This information will be endorsed by the Medical School. During the STEP process it is essential that information regarding any potential patient safety issues, significant educational, health and welfare concerns, as well as areas of the student’s relative weakness are passed to UKFP. The process is facilitated by completion of an online form. Every Foundation Programme applicant is required to complete a form. You do not need to disclose a specific medical diagnosis or treatment details on this form. You should however provide sufficient information on the nature of your condition or disability to enable your Foundation School to understand how it may affect you in your clinical training or work as a doctor, and to understand your support needs. The University will be required to confirm your submission.
In order for students to enter foundation training within the UK NHS you are required to share your personal information, via GMC Connect, to Health Education England responsible for foundation training programmes where you apply. This includes you name, academic achievement, sex, student ID number, date of birth and email address.
Examination information will be shared with professional bodies or education authorities for student membership purposes and to enable entry to any national examinations. Routine quality improvement data will be analysed in aggregated and anonymised form, and may published on the basis of GDPR Article 6(1)(e): Processing necessary for the performance of a task in the public interest. The University will also be required to inform regulatory bodies of Fitness to Practice issues that may arise.
The University will also be required to inform regulatory bodies. Where UCLan shares information as part of the STEP process or shares examination results, it does so on the basis of Article 6(1)(e):processing necessary for the performance of a task in the public interest. Where we share special category data such as information about your health, the additional lawful basis on which we rely in Article 9(2)(j) GDPR (processing necessary for public health purposes), by virtue of section 10 and Schedule 1(3) DPA. This is because the information is shared in the interests of patient safety to ensure high standards of quality and safety of healthcare, under the responsibility of a medical professional who is bound by professional secrecy.
If you successfully complete the MBBS course, an approved pass list is forwarded to the GMC.
For further information about how your information will be used, please contact Greenbankhub@uclan.ac.uk