Expert Patient Helpline

What happens when I call the helpline?

Saving Faces staff will try to pair you up with an “expert patient volunteer” who has had, or has cared for someone, with a similar medical condition or treatment. When we find a suitable volunteer, we will contact them and arrange for you to talk at a mutually convenient time.  Generally, the volunteer will call you.

What information will you hold about me?

When you contact the helpline, Saving Faces staff will check that you consent to take part in the expert patient helpline service. In order to provide an effective service, we need to collect and record some of your personal information including your name, age and details of your medical condition, treatment and current health status. We will also ask you to provide a telephone number so that we can contact you. This information will be stored and used to provide you with helpline services.

How do we keep your information safe?

All personal identifiers are stored in a database on an encrypted memory stick.

Helpline service evaluation

We like to call helpline participants after they have made contact with each other, to ask them about their experience. This helps us to identify ways to improve the service for both callers and expert patients. We will only call you at a pre-arranged time that is convenient for you. You will have an opportunity to tell us if you would prefer not to take part in this service evaluation.

Can I remove my information from the helpline’s databases?

Your personal information will be securely destroyed once all activates relating to your use of helpline service are complete. If you feel that our service has been useful, we urge you to consider becoming a member of our support network to help future patients.

Under the GDPR you have the following rights:

• The right to access your personal information and request a copy
• The right to edit and update your personal information
• The right to request to have your personal information deleted
• The right to restrict processing of your personal information
• The right to object to data processing
• The right to have your data ported to another provider
• The right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (for the UK this is the Information Commissioner’s Office https://ico.org.uk/
• You have a right to obtain confirmation that your personal information is being processed

Helpline callers have the right to withdraw their consent at any time by contacting us on 020 3417 7757 or by emailing info@savingfaces.co.uk

What is the expert patient role?

Patients and carers contact Saving Faces when they feel that it would be helpful to talk to someone who has been through a similar experience. A member of the Saving Faces team may therefore call you to let you know that we have matched you with a helpline caller. Once you have agreed to speak to the patient or carer, we will arrange a mutually convenient time for the call to take place. Generally, we advise expert patient volunteers to make the calls as this will provide you with an opportunity to withhold you telephone number. We suggest that you use 141 as a prefix to the caller’s number to when dialling from your landline or mobile phone.

What information will you hold about me?

In order to provide our service will need to collect and store some personal details about you including name, date of birth, contact details (telephone numbers, email addresses and postal address) , gender, languages spoken and information relating to your medical condition and treatment. We use this information to match volunteers to helpline callers.

Consent and opt out

You have given your active consent to participating in the expert patient helpline service. Every three years, we check whether the volunteers are happy to remain expert patients and have their information stored with us.

Under the GDPR you have the following rights:

• The right to access your personal information and request a copy
• The right to edit and update your personal information
• The right to request to have your personal information deleted
• The right to restrict processing of your personal information
• The right to object to data processing
• The right to have your data ported to another provider
• The right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (for the UK this is the Information Commissioner’s Office https://ico.org.uk/
• You have a right to obtain confirmation that your personal information is being processed

You may opt out of the service at any time by contacting us by calling 020 3417 7757 or emailing info@savingfaces.co.uk

Service evaluation

We like to call helpline participants after they have made contact with each other, to ask them about their experience. This helps us to identify ways to improve the service for both callers and expert patients. We will only call you at a pre-arranged time that is convenient for you. You will have an opportunity to tell us if you would prefer not to take part in this service evaluation.

How do we keep your information safe?

All personal identifiers are stored in a database on an encrypted memory stick.