Well-timed charitable appeal raises concern about use of NHS database
Posted: 23 August, 2010 by Colin Adamson
Got a nice letter from Tim Smart today. He is the chief exec of King’s College Hospital here in London, England. The letter introduced him and told me about the existence and the work of the King’s College Hospital Charity. An entrepreneurial reaction to budgeted cuts. I lose no sleep over people contacting me in the hope I will give them money. No harm in that. But I did wonder about the timing. I have just had a procedure done at King’s – see earlier blog – and this letter arrived so soon after that I assumed that this was some well-organised campaign following up on a documented transaction with the institution. But my NHS treatment details are not available to the fundraisers – are they? I ask the question. Coincidence Tim? The letter finishes with a PS that reassures that King’s will not share my personal data with any third party. But within the trust? They could of course get my details from the census segmented by post code and the timing was a happy coincidence – still it would be good to know.
As the Director of Fundraising for King’s College Hospital, I hope you will allow me the opportunity to respond to your very thoughtful commentary.
All fundraisers target their marketing at people most likely to support their cause – for example someone who goes to a music concert would be a more likely support the arts, somebody who buys pet food is more likely to support animal welfare. Patients who have had a positive experience in hospital are more likely to be interested in how that hospital’s charity has made a difference to their care, and possibly in supporting it financially.
Let me put your mind absolutely at rest. We are a department within the hospital, but we will never have access to any patient data. Every hospital has a DPA Officer and Caldicott Guardian to ensure that patient data is not used inappropriately. (Some supporters assume that we know their medical history, but we don’t).
Our Chief Executive has indeed written to you, and to all patients who have attended the hospital in the last 3 months. This has nothing to do with anything other than the fact that recent patients may be more interested in hearing about the Charity than those who were treated longer ago. This mailing will hopefully be repeated quarterly, if the general response is good.
If patients receiving the mailing are interested in hearing more about the charity, they can send the reply back to us, where they will be entered into our own, separate database (equally highly protected by DPA laws).
I count myself as being a grateful patient of King’s, after life saving care of my daughter; my son was born here too. Many grateful patients are moved to support the charity, and this mailing gives them an opportuinity to choose to do that.
The finances of the Charity are absolutely separate from the hospital – they are an independent organisation and answerable to the Charity Commission and not the Department of Health or Monitor. For this reason, the financial situation of the NHS is not linked to our mailing campaign.
You may be interested to know that in some hospitals in the United States, fundraisers are informed with 24 hours notice of all elective patients coming into the hospital in order that they can assess which ones are likely “major” donors. They then send a fundraiser to meet and greet those patients (free newspapers, flowers, bath robes etc). This is an approach that, while successful, I hope never reaches these shores!
I hope this answers your issues, and that if you do wish to find out more, you will visit our website.
Jane Ferguson
Director of Fundraising
King’s College Hospital