Access to Information

Please be aware that the Trust will be implementing a new patient record system (encompass) between 14 April 2025 and 30 May 2025.

During this period, while our staff prioritise direct patient care via the implementation of encompass, you may experience delays in receiving responses to information requests, such as Subject Access Requests (requests for personal information) and Freedom of Information requests.

We kindly ask that you take this into consideration when submitting a request to the Trust. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this system implementation.

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The Western Trust collects personal information from patients / clients in order to provide the most appropriate treatment and care. We also collect and hold information about our services to ensure they are efficient and are meeting the needs of our community.

On this website we publish a lot of information about who we are and what we do. However there may be things about the Trust and our services or business which you would like further information on. There is different legislation governing the rights of individuals to access information, depending on the type of information you would like to access. If the information you require is not available on this website, you can request it directly from the Trust using the relevant legislation, as detailed below.

• Freedom of Information (FOI) requests

  The Freedom of Information Act provides a right of access to official or corporate information held by the Trust and other public authorities. This legislation applies to recorded information about the business of the Trust; (please see the separate section below to enquire about access to personal information)

  Requests for official information about the Trust are dealt with through our Freedom of Information office. For more information about making an FOI request and how we process them, click here.

• Access to Personal Information

  Like all public and private organisations, the Trust is legally obliged to protect any personal information we hold, including information about our patients, clients and staff. Personal information held by the Trust will be processed in accordance with the General Data protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

  Data Protection legislation also gives everyone the right to access their own personal information. This is known as a ‘subject access request’.  Separate legislation applies to requests for a deceased person’s health records.

  To find out more about how we use personal health and social care information and how you can access personal information please click here.