A Caldicott Guardian is a senior person responsible for protecting the confidentiality of a patient and service-user information and enabling appropriate information-sharing.
North Bristol NHS Trust’s Caldicott Guardian is Mr Tim Whittlestone.
Organisations that access patient records are required to have a Caldicott Guardian; this was mandated for the NHS by the Health Service Circular: HSC 1999/012. The mandate includes acute trusts, ambulance trusts, mental health trusts, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), special health authorities, commissioning support units and area teams.
The Guardian plays a key role in ensuring that NHS, Councils with Social Services Responsibilities and partner organisations satisfy the highest practical standards for handling patient identifiable information.
Acting as the 'conscience' of an organisation, the Guardian actively supports work to enable information sharing where it is appropriate to share, and advises on options for lawful and ethical processing of information.
For more information visit http://systems.hscic.gov.uk/infogov/caldicott