Sharing information during major incidents and emergencies guidance for health and care professionals

In some emergency situations, such as floods, there will be established processes for sharing information about individuals who may be impacted between emergency response organisations. You may be asked to input into the planning of different emergency scenarios to help avoid having to make decisions under pressure.

In the event of an emergency, you should follow your organisation's established policies and process for sharing information, ensuring that authorised individuals are involved in the decision making. In the absence of a process or policy, you may need to make decisions yourself.

Safeguarding the lives of individuals at risk of death or serious harm will be the main priority when responding to an emergency.

If possible, before sharing information you should consult your Caldicott Guardian, Data Protection Officer (DPO), a senior clinician or the most senior manager on call who can provide advice and authorise disclosures.

Where expertise is not available (for example, out of hours) and there is an imminent risk of serious harm due to the emergency, you should use your professional judgement and record your reasoning. The decision should be recorded even if you do not share information. Further information is provided in the guidance for IG professionals. 

For individual care, for example when a paramedic shares information about an individual with a team in a hospital’s emergency department, you can do this in line with your usual practice.

When sharing information beyond the health and care team in an emergency, for example, to aid emergency services with evacuations, it is likely that the disclosure can be justified in the public interest. The General Medical Council (GMC) guidance Confidentiality: good practice in handling patient information explains that disclosures in the public interest may be justified to protect individuals or society from risks of serious harm.

You should document details of the information you have shared and the decisions you have made so that there is a record of your actions and the urgent situation you responded to.