The Act is based on eight legally enforceable principles that organisations and individuals must apply when they process your personal data. The Act states that all personal data must:
- Be processed fairly and lawfully;Only be obtained and processed for specified and lawful purposes;
- Be adequate, relevant for the purpose and not excessive;
- Be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date;
- Not be kept longer than necessary;
- Be processed in accordance with the data subject’s rights;
- Be kept secure;
- Not be transferred to other countries without adequate protection for the rights and freedoms of the data subject.
What is Personal Data?
Personal data is any data which, on its own or referenced against other data held by the organisation, can be used to identify a living individual.
This includes all the obvious details the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service might hold about you like name, address, medical treatment etc. It might also include expressions of opinion about you and the Service’s intentions towards you eg staff records.
The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service collects and retains information on patients and callers, and in order to provide efficient emergency care we have to:
- Find out who and where you are – we will need your name, address and date of birth.
- Identify and establish what your symptoms are and collect other relevant medical information which will help us to treat you effectively and get you to hoital safely and in a timely manner.
This information when collected is then written up on the patient report form (PRF) which goes with you to hospital.
The Act recognises that some types of personal data are more sensitive than others. There are extra rules for processing data about your ethnic origin, religious beliefs, trade union membership, party political opinions, sexuality, health, involvement in court proceedings etc.