Important information

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (the Trust, Trust, SaTH, we or us) is committed to preserving the privacy of all visitors to this website. Please read the following privacy statement to understand how we use and protect the information that you provide to us.

By using this website, emailing the Trust and completing forms e.g. sign up to the Foundation Trust newsletter, E-Cards or feedback/contact us form on this website you consent to the collection, use and transfer of the information that you provide to us in accordance with the terms of this statement. You also consent to the Trust to contact you through email/telephone/text message/letter in response to your enquiry.

If you do not wish to be contacted by the Trust in response to your enquiry please let us know by stating this when you submit your personal information.

We reserve the rights to change the contents of this website, including this privacy statement at any time. by posting such changes on the website. It is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with this statement regularly to ensure that you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of the website following the posting of any such changes will constitute your acceptance of the revised privacy statement.

If you do not accept this privacy statement, you may not use this website.

Information collection

If you register with the website, or if you complete any form on the website, you may be asked to provide information about yourself (including your name and contact details)

We may also collect information about your usage of this website as you and others browse and use our website (see section on cookies and google analytics), as well as information about you from messages you post to the website and emails or letters you send to us.

Use of the information we collect

Your personal information will be used and shared for several general purposes including providing information that you have requested; handling your enquiries via the relevant department, personalising your experience on the website, providing access to some areas of the website and keeping you up to date with services which may be relevant to you.

We may also ask you to provide us with information including your views on the website regarding contact and functionality, the Freedom of Information request process (if appropriate) and the compliments and complaints process (if appropriate).

If you do not wish to be contacted by the Trust for information collection purposes please let us know by stating this when you submit your personal information.

Feedback/Contact Us forms

You may decide to fill in a Feedback/Contact Us Form on our website to gain information from the Trust. This Feedback/Contact Us Form cannot answer medical questions or give medical advice.

Please be aware that by submitting this form you are consenting to your personal information being passed on to the relevant department within the Trust.  You are also consenting to receiving emails from the Trust.

Data Retention 

The Trust will retain the personal information provided by you for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purposes listed in this statement.

Disclosure of information

The information you provide to us will be held on our computers, or the computers of one or more of our suppliers. The data we collect from you may be processed, in accordance with this privacy policy, by staff who work for us or one of our suppliers. By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing and processing.

We will also pass information on the usage of our website onto third parties, but this information and any information derived from it will only be used by that third party to analyse usage of the site.

We may disclose personal information in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order. We may also disclose such information in response to a law enforcement agency’s request or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, non-compliance with our terms and conditions of use, or as otherwise permitted or required by law and consistent with legal requirements.

Cookies and Google Analytics

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small file that is sent from a website to your computer (or mobile device) when you visit a website. This file then helps us to see how we could change our site to meet your interests, as well as remembering your preferences and settings. Cookies can also help us to enhance your experience of our website as a user through additional features such as linking in with social networks and showing personalised content.

Why are cookies used?

By allowing cookies, we can use Google Analytics to see useful features such as which pages are the most popular, how people are navigating through the site and how users come across our site in the first place. This is something that is really helpful for us, as we can use this information to continuously develop and improve the way our site works.

How can I control my cookies?

For more information about cookies, and how you can disable them, please visit the Information Commissioner’s Office Cookies Page.

Accessing and updating your information

You are entitled to see a copy of the information that we have collected from you and that we maintain. If you wish to do this, please fill in our feedback/contact us form and state that this is a ‘subject access request’. We may charge a small fee to meet our costs in providing you with these details.

You may ask us to make changes to the information provided by you and/or held about you, to ensure that it is accurate and kept up to date. You may also request that we cease from processing your personal information and that we delete this from our database or records. Please note that it may be impossible to completely delete your information because of back-ups and records of deletions.

We will only perform the activities outlined above to the extent that such activities will not compromise privacy, security or any other legal interests.

Disclaimer

The Trust website gives general information about our hospitals and the services we provide. We cannot answer medical questions or give medical advice via this website, email or feedback form.  Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the information on this website is accurate and complete The Trust cannot be held responsible for the site’s accuracy or for any loss, damage or expense that might be caused by any action or lack of action taken on the basis of the information provided on the site or for any loss suffered due to reliance on that information.  We cannot guarantee uninterrupted access to this website or the sites to which it links.  We accept no responsibility for any damages arising from the loss of use of this information.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we employ security measures to protect the information provided by you, the Trust cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our site and any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use appropriate security procedures and features aimed at preventing any unauthorised access, unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage.

Copyright 

All information on this website is the copyright of The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust except where stated otherwise.

Visitors to this website are granted permission to access the Trust’s copyright material.

The written material on this website may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium for research, private study or for internal circulation within an organisation provided it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context.

Where any of the Trust copyright items are republished or copied to others, the source of the material must be identified and the copyright status acknowledged. For example, by stating “Copyright The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust” with a link to the source page.

The permission to reproduce the Trust copyright protected material does not extend to any material on this site which is identified as being the copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned.

Links to external sites

This website contains links to other websites. This privacy statement applies only to this website, so when you are moving to another site which collects personal information you should always read the privacy policy relating to that website.

For the avoidance of doubt, we do not pass on any personal information you have given us to any other website operators.

The Trust only links to other websites who are either partner organisations such as Primary Care Trusts or Local Authorities, other formal partnerships such as validated charitable organisations, or organisations that have been validated by the clinical department e.g. the organisation provides part of the care pathway for our patients.

The Trust is not responsible for the contents or reliability of the linked web sites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Listing should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.

You do not have to ask permission to link to pages hosted on this website. However, we do not permit our pages to be loaded into frames. The pages must load into the user’s entire window. You are not permitted to use the NHS logo without prior permission.

Contact us

For all comments, queries and other requests relating to our use of your information, please fill in our feedback/contact us or notify us in writing by contacting the Communications Office, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, Mytton Oak Road, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY3 8XQ.

What are cookies and why do we use them?

We use cookies to enhance your experience using our website, as almost all websites do today. Cookies are small text files that store information on your computer for a variety of functions.

We use cookies to:

• Keep the website running as you'd expect (for example keeping you logged in as you browse different webpages)
• Remember which pages you like the best, so we can show you personalised content.
• Let you share things you like on your social networks.
• Store some of your details, such as your log in details (but only if you want us to!)

Cookies also help us evaluate our website. Knowing visitor levels, what device our visitors are using, which pages people like the best, social networks shares and how people have found us (search engines and links for example) helps us to make the website better for us and for you!

We will never use cookies to:

• Store your personal information (unless you want us to, for example your login details so you don't have to re-enter them each time you visit the site.)
• Pass on your information to third parties.

Types of cookies and what we each one for:

• First Party: These are cookies set by us and only usable by us. They are the ones that keep you logged in during a browsing session.
• Third Party: These are cookies set by third parties that we use. The only third party cookies we use are for evaluating our website (we use Google Analytics for this), and those that allow you to share things on your social media sites.
• Session Cookies: These are temporary cookies that are deleted when you close your browser. These are the ones that keep you logged in as you browse from page to page.
• Persistent Cookies: These are stored on your device for a fixed period of time. We use this to remember your preferences to show you personalized content and offers, as well as remembering your log in or payment details for your next visit, if you specifically tell us you want us to.

If you still don't want us to use cookies, that's fine. Here's some information on how to disable them:

• Mozilla Firefox: Click 'Tools' at the top left of your Firefox window. Then click 'Options' and a smaller window should pop up. Click the 'Privacy' tab, and choose 'use custom settings for history' from the drop down box. Then you can uncheck the 'Accept cookies from sites' box to remove all cookies, or 'Accept third-party cookies' to just remove third party cookies. You can also choose to delete cookies every time you close firefox, or make it so you approve every cookie as they are about to be used by a site by keeping the 'accept cookies' box checked and choosing 'I close firefox' or 'ask me every time' in the 'Keep until:' drop down box.
• Safari: In Safari 5.0 or earlier, click 'Preferences', 'Security' and then 'Accept cookies'. There you will get the option to block all cookies, accept all cookies, or accept cookies just from sites you go to regularly. In Safari 5.1 or later, click 'Preferences' and 'Privacy', where you can choose to allow or block all cookies, or to block cookies from third parties and advertisers.
• Internet Explorer: Click 'Tools' at the top left of your Explorer window. Then Click 'Internet Options' and a smaller window should pop up. Click the 'Privacy' tab at the top, and the settings slider allows you to choose the level of privacy you want. Clicking at the various intervals tells you what that level of privacy does for you. For example, the highest level of protection will block all cookies.
• Google Chrome: Click the spanner icon on the main toolbar, then choose 'options' and then 'under the hood'. Click on the 'Privacy' option, and then 'content settings'. Clicking on 'cookies' will give you options to; delete all cookies, block all cookies, allow all cookies or to set preferences for different websites.