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Booking and Referral Standard
Summary
The Booking and Referral Standard is an interoperability standard for patient record systems which supports direct care by enabling booking and referral information to be sent between NHS service providers quickly, safely and in a format that is useful to clinicians.
Controller | Due to the NHS Digital and NHS England merger, Department of Health and Social Care are a Joint Controller with NHS England in respect of establishing the purpose of the Directions, to the extent that the collection of the BaRS API transactional data includes the processing of personal data, by virtue of being directed by NHSE (now DHSC) to provide the systems and related monitoring to fulfil the Booking and Referral Standard Directions 2022. |
How we use the information (processing activities) | The purpose of Booking and Referral Standard is help citizens and patients in providing appropriate referrals and bookings for clincal care. The Booking and Referral Standard is an interoperability standard for patient record systems which supports direct care by enabling booking and referral information to be sent between NHS service providers quickly, safely and in a format that is useful to clinicians. |
Does this contain sensitive (special category) data such as health information? | Yes |
Who are recipients of this data? |
BARs is a secure services between registered NHS care providers |
Is data transferred outside the UK? | This data is not transferred out of the UK |
How long the data is kept | 90 days for audit data |
Our lawful basis for holding this data | Legal obligation |
Your rights |
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How can you withdraw your consent? |
Not relevant as consent is not the basis for processing. |
Is the data subject to decisions made solely by computers? (automated decision making) | Not relevant |
Where does this data come from? | Data subjects + NHS care providers |
The legal basis for collecting this data | The statutory functions of NHS Digital transferred to NHS England under the Health and Social Care Information Centre (Transfer of Functions, Abolition and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2023 (Transfer Regulations) with effect from 1st February 2023 (Transfer Date). Under the Transfer Regulations, all directions by either the Secretary of State or NHS England to NHS Digital are now treated as directions made by the Secretary of State to NHS England except for system delivery directions issued by NHS England to NHS Digital, which come to an end. In such cases NHS England may provide the BARS technical system under Section 2 and Section 1H of the National Health Service Act 2006 (arranging services for the purposes of the health service in England) together with Section 13E (Duty as to improvement in quality of services) and Section 13 N (Duty as to promoting integration) and perhaps 13YA Power of NHS England to provide assistance and support. GDPR Article 6(1)(c) - legal obligation, Article 9(2)(g) - processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest, Article 9 (2) (h) – processing is necessary for the management of health or social care systems and services. Article (6)(e) – public task in relation to the delivery of the technical system for BARS. |
Where we use this data
Booking and Referral Standard
The Booking and Referral Standard (BaRS) is an interoperability standard that enables digital patient journeys or operational processes for patients, healthcare workers and carers. It allows relevant information to be shared quickly, safely and in a format that is useful. It will eventually be available in all care settings.