When you come into one of our hospitals or to a community clinic for treatment, you will be asked to fill in a form giving some personal information about yourself. This will include your age, gender, marital status, ethnicity, faith or belief and sexual orientation.
It is important for us to collect this demographic information as it helps us to plan our services so that they meet the cultural, faiths, beliefs and language needs of our diverse community. We also use it to make sure that everyone has fair and equal access to the care we provide.
Personal information also helps us identify patients who may be more at risk of specific conditions, such as heart disease and stroke, so that we can make sure they receive the best possible care to meet their needs. Asking you about your ethnicity also helps us fulfil our statutory duty to promote race equality.
All of the information which you provide will be treated as part of your confidential medical record and will not be shared with any other person or organisation. It will only be released in the form of total numbers, which means that no individual can be identified from the statistics.
Please note that you do not have to give us this information if you would prefer not to.
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