Important notice:
From 15th May 2012, the team delivering the work of the NPC will form the NICE Medicines and Prescribing Centre and will sit alongside the Clinical Guidelines team within the Centre for Clinical Practice.
As part of NICE, all future Medicines and prescribing outputs will be published on the NICE website and signposted from the Medicines and prescribing home page.
Privacy policy
National Prescribing Centre privacy policy for www.npc.co.uk
and www.npc.nhs.uk
Last modified date 29/03/11
Privacy Policy
The National Prescribing Centre (NPC) respects the privacy of people who use its website.
The purpose of this policy is to explain how we do this. The policy covers the NPC website: www.npc.nhs.uk.
It does not cover any links within this site to other websites.
Your privacy on this website
The National Prescribing Centre is the Data Controller for this website under the Data Protection Act (1998). The purpose of this privacy policy is to inform you as a user of the site about what information we collect when you visit the site, how we use the information, whether the information is disclosed and the ways in which we protect users’ privacy. We always collect, use and store information in accordance with the Data Protection Act (1998)
Information we collect when you visit the site
We collect information indirectly and directly. When you access www.npc.nhs.uk we use technology to collect information indirectly such as your internet (IP) address which is then kept in our internet access logs. Log files allow us to record visitors’ use of the site to enable us to enhance the future layout of the site. The NPC may use the information to study statistical results and produce summary reports. The data we gather in this way does not contain any personal information or information about which other sites you have visited. We do not use cookies for collecting information.
Data Protection Act
In accordance with the Data Protection Act (1998), we have a legal duty to protect any information we collect from you. We will only use your information for the purpose as described. Your information will not be shared with any third party, including our partner organisation, NPC Plus without your prior permission. The only exception to this would be third party technical staff who may need to access your information for reasons of troubleshooting and website structure development. You have the right to access your personal data and rectify any inaccuracies at any time.
How we will use your information
Any information that you submit on this website will be retained and may be used by NPC as follows:
e-mail update service
The NPC has an optional email update subscription service whereby users can subscribe to receive email updates around specific topics which are of interest. The service allows users to add, delete or amend their own details (profile). It also allows users to unsubscribe from the whole service or any specific part of the service (topics) at any time. It is NPC policy to encourage individuals to manage their own personal information for these services but the NPC will make any amendments upon your instruction in writing using an NPC feedback form (linked). We collect this information for the following purposes:
- to inform you of NPC news and new content available on the NPC website for your selected topics
- to inform you of any relevant developments and/or legislation around prescribing and medicines use
- to inform you of meetings, training sessions and workshops pertinent to your selected topics.*
- to personalise specific information available to you
- for “service administration” which means that we may contact you regarding your profile or a specific service you have subscribed to
- to contact you regarding any inappropriate use of the site
- you may be contacted on occasion to help us research any developmental projects the NPC is involved in
* In this instance your information may be used in conjunction with the NPC events system. You may be asked to provide extra information, for example any special or dietary requirements. Your booking history will be recorded on the events system only and will be stored together with your email address, name, job title, organisation / company name and contact telephone number. This information is accessible to the NPC events team or third party technical staff for reasons of troubleshooting.
Tracking of email update service
We will use anonymous tracking for the purpose of business planning and development. We can trace emails to specific individuals, but those individuals are associated with an anonymous profile where no personal identifiable data is connected to them, but demographic information can be, for example: profession group, postal areas.
Discussion room – public area of NPC website
NPC facilitates discussion through its discussion rooms. When you post comments or questions onto an NPC discussion room notice board they can be read by anybody visiting the page. Your name may appear next to your comments.
Postings onto NPC discussion rooms are monitored regularly. If you post or add any offensive inappropriate or objectionable content to NPC discussion rooms we reserve the right to remove it. We also reserve the right to edit material, but without altering the context in which it was written.
We may contact you regarding any inappropriate use of the discussion rooms.
Password protected secure areas of NPC website
NPC has password protected areas of its website www.npc.nhs.uk . The NPC will generate and issue a unique username and password only to verified eligible individuals who meet specific criteria as set by NPC. These areas are set up in line with current work programmes and only users who are issued with a unique username and password should use them. Under no circumstances should a username and password be passed on to another individual(s).
These areas may act as a forum for sharing of good practice and may invite users to post examples of local practice
We will not publish any postings to secure areas on the public area of our website www.npc.nhs.uk without your prior permission
Discussion rooms – secure areas of NPC website
NPC facilitates discussion in its secure areas of the website for allocated work programmes. These rooms are accessible by username and password only as issued by the NPC to verified, eligible individuals who meet specific criteria as set by NPC. Only users who are issued with a unique username and password should use them. Under no circumstances should a username and password be passed on to another individual(s).
When you post comments or questions onto a username/password protected NPC discussion room notice board they can be read by anybody authorised to visit the page. I.e: holders of allocated passwords and usernames. Your name may appear next to your comments.
Postings on username/password protected NPC discussion rooms are monitored regularly. If you post or add any offensive inappropriate or objectionable content to these discussion rooms we reserve the right to remove it. We also reserve the right to edit material, but without altering the context in which it was written.
We may contact you regarding any inappropriate use of these discussion rooms.
Feedback
If you provide feedback on our website email nice@nice.org.uk we will only use it to develop and improve the site. We will keep actual feedback for six months after which time it will be deleted. Analysis of feedback may be kept.
We analyse it to see what is most effective about our site, to help us identify ways in which we can improve it and make it more effective.
Sharing of information
We do not share data with other organisations unless the law permits us to do so. We do not sell personal information. We will share it only with our authorised Data Processors who must act at all times on our instructions as the Data Controller under the Data Protection Act 1998.
Your data is kept under secure conditions
The site has security measures in place to protect the loss and alteration of information under our control.
Changes in Policy
If the privacy policy changes in any way, we will place an updated version on this page. Viewing this page regularly will ensure that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we would share it with a third party.
Contacting us
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or the practices of this site, please email nice@nice.org.uk or write to:
National Prescribing Centre,
Ground Floor,
Building 2000,
Vortex Court,
Enterprise Way,
Wavertree Technology Park,
Liverpool, L13 1FB
Tel: 0151 353 7700
Fax: 0151 220 4334
