Privacy notice: School of Medicine and Dentistry

This privacy notice is for students studying courses within the School of Medicine and Dentistry. It tells you how we will use your information for purposes associated with your course. You should also read our student privacy notice in conjunction with the information in this privacy notice. The student privacy notice explains how the University will use information about all students and tells you about your rights under data protection legislation.

For further information about how your information is used, please contact the School Operations Manager.

Education providers share ‘fitness to practise’ information between schools for healthcare professionals 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 use 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). We do this to verify that another institution has not previously found that you are unfit to practise as a healthcare professional. Data protection legislation enables 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) UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)).

As well as the checks mentioned above, we will also add information about you to the Excluded Students Database, where appropriate. If a ‘cause for concern’ is investigated under our Fitness to Practise procedure, details of any penalty outcome and a copy of the decision will be included on the Excluded Students Database. The information will then be accessible to other schools running courses which lead to entry into 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 fitness to practise penalty outcomes against you or emerging Fitness to Practise investigations. You have a right of access to any information held about you on the Excluded Students Database and to correct any factual errors. If you wish to exercise this right, you can contact your Fitness to Practise Lead. The controller of the Excluded Schools Database is the Medical Schools Council (MSC). Information about the MSC’s security measures and retention periods is set out in the Protocol for the Excluded Students Database, which is available from the MSC.

The information that will be added to the Excluded Schools 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

We will share information such as your name, student ID, email address and photograph with relevant Health Education providers such as GP practices, hospitals, hospices and professional bodies involved with your training/route to registration on your programme, where applicable. 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) UK GDPR).

If you are a Physician Associate student, we will share your name, student ID number and bank account details with NHS England (NHS England (North West)) so you can receive your travel grant. We share this information on the basis of Article 6(1)(f) UK GDPR because it is in the legitimate interests of NHS England (NHS England (North West)) to receive this information to administer your travel grant, which will benefit you.

If you are studying on the MSc Optometry, we will disclose your information to the College of Optometrists (the CoO). The CoO delivers and assesses a module in year 3 of your course, which is an integral part of the MSc Optometry. We will share information to enable the CoO to register you on its student portal and deliver and assess the module, which includes managing and monitoring your placement and associated assessments. The CoO will share information relating to the module and your assessments with the University to enable the University to continue to deliver your course and your student contract.

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) UK GDPR).

We will also share information with relevant regulatory bodies such as the General Medical Council, General Optical Council, General Dental Council and Health & Care Professions Council in relation to your progress on the course, including if you are withdrawn or repeat years, and to confirm, amend or provide information as appropriate, where such information is necessary for regulatory purposes and/or to carry out protective functions to protect members of the public against dishonesty, malpractice or other seriously improper conduct, or unfitness or incompetence. Information is shared because it is necessary for the performance of your student contract and to enable you to undertake placements which are part of your course (Article 6(1)(b) UK GDPR); or because it is necessary for the public tasks of the University and the relevant regulator (Article 6(1)(e) UK 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 or other similar platforms for future use and reference. All teaching sessions or discussions delivered online may be recorded including, comments by students. Any online delivery may be 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 a task in the public interest (teaching and making the lectures available as student reference material) (Article 6(1)(e) UK 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 University’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 UK GDPR. The lawful bases from the UK 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).

Students studying on the MBBS:

If you successfully complete your course in Medicine, we will inform the General Medical Council. Information will also 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 School of Medicine and Dentistry. 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 your 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.

To enable you to enter foundation training within the UK NHS you are required to share your personal information, via GMC Connect, to NHS England which is responsible for foundation training programmes. This includes you name, academic achievement, sex, student ID number, date of birth and email address.

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) UK GDPR: 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 is Article 9(2)(j) UK 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.

Students studying on other regulated courses:

Examination information will be shared with professional bodies or education authorities for student membership purposes and to enable entry to any national examinations/routes to registration. The University will also inform regulatory bodies about your progression and/or course completion.