Protecting patient data.

We transmit and store data in encrypted form. This means nobody else can read it without the right credentials. When stored, your data is encrypted in an extremely secure UK-based Microsoft Azure data centre.

We meet the highest standards of safety and security, as set by NHS bodies and the government. We go through assurance processes for these and we regularly get outside independent experts to check our systems are secure.

Typically, the healthcare organisation is the ‘data controller. Patients are the data subjects. We are the data processor (where our services are used). This means that we process data about your patients under the terms in our Data Processing Agreement, to allow you (as a healthcare organisation) to provide a service to your patients.

Accurx is an accredited Type 1 Supplier on NHS Digital’s DCS Catalogue and is fully compliant with NHS Digital’s interoperability standards for primary care integrations. We are also an assured IM1 live supplier and an approved supplier on the Government’s Digital Marketplace (G-Cloud).

Our primary care integrations have proven capability and, given our understanding of the stringent assurance requirements for integrations in these settings, we take and utilise these learnings when developing all of our products in other care settings (such as our Accurx Web offering for secondary care) to ensure that our integrations attain and maintain the highest standards.

Our Accurx servers are hosted in the London Microsoft Azure Data Centre. We follow best practice guidance from NHS Digital, the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Microsoft. See here for detailed information. All data sent is encrypted when it is sent and when it is stored.

Yes, we have the Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certification. Cyber Essentials is a scheme run by the UK government and the National Centre for Cyber Security to help you know that you can trust your data with us.

In order to provide communication with and about patients we process patient data and healthcare staff data to our secure servers. The patient data typically includes name, identifiers, contact details, demographic data, message content (including documents and patient replies to messages either via secure surveys or two-way messaging) and other application-use related data. We only process this data when you send a communication to patients.

We also process healthcare staff data who are users of Accurx. This typically includes role, organisation, contact details, identifiers including gender and date-of-birth, messages, metadata, signatures, login and other application-use related data.

The video and audio communication of any video consultation is only visible to participants on the call, and is not recorded or stored on any server. The IP address of call participants may be stored as part of metadata stored, however no other personal information of call participants is collected or stored.

We use FireText,BT/EE, or Vonage to send SMS messages. You can read the Firetext privacy policy here and BT/EE privacy policy here.

No, providing another legal basis is used. This was confirmed by the ICO in a BBC interview (go to 7:55 in). The UK GDPR allows six different lawful bases for processing data, of which consent is one. The NHS also advises healthcare organisations to process patient data for the delivery or administration of care under the following legal basis:

• Article 6.1. (e): “processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…;”
• 9(2)(h) ‘…medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems…’

The official guidance from the ICO states that within a healthcare context consent is often not the appropriate legal basis under the UK GDPR. The British Medical Association also provides useful templates for GP practices that can be used to inform patients of how their data is being used. The ‘Provision of direct care’ template already includes the legal bases for processing data for this purpose, which are the ones mentioned above.

When sending an SMS Accurx Desktop shows all consent codes and dissent codes found in the patient record. If a patient wishes to opt out of receiving SMS messages, you should update their ‘Notification preferences’ in the patient registration dialog.

In short, you can never be 100% confident, and so SMS messages shouldn’t be used for sensitive information (e.g. positive STI test result) or time-critical information (e.g. to book an urgent appointment) without the right safety net or follow up.

There are a lot of steps you can take to improve the quality of your SMS database, including asking your receptionists to confirm mobile numbers on every call, and confirming a patient’s mobile number in a consultation, especially when sending an SMS at the end of the consultation.

Some of our features enable patients to self-book an appointment (Self-Book, Batch Self-Book and Patient Triage). In order for these features to work, Accurx searches for available slots in a practice's EMIS or SystmOne appointment book, and makes these visible for patients. This enables patients to book an appointment at a time and date that suits them, from a list of appointments pre-determined by the practice as ‘available’. This functionality is IG compliant, and we make sure to keep both user and patient data safe.