DPDP for the Administration department in Healthcare

Keep them for at least the periods health laws set: indoor records for three years from the start of treatment under the 2002 medical ethics regulations, PCPNDT records for two years, MTP registers for five years, Schedule H1 registers for three years, and ethics committee trial records for five years after a trial. Many hospitals keep records longer for continuity of care and legal claims. Write the period and reason for each record type, then erase or archive.

Section 8(7) allows retention where a law requires it; Rule 8(3) sets a one-year floor. Section 8(7) · Rule 8 · Section 7

1. List record types: OPD, IPD, lab, imaging, billing, PCPNDT, MTP, pharmacy.
2. Note the legal minimum.
3. Decide any longer period and why.
4. Archive with restricted access.
5. Record each deletion.

• Retention schedule
• Archive access list
• Deletion log

• No schedule at all
• Deleting before the minimum
• Keeping open access to old records

• How long can we keep personal data?
• Which records need extra protection under other health laws?
• Someone asks us to delete their data. Must we?

All three are personal data. Put a clear notice where people are recorded, collect only what you need at reception, keep footage and registers for a set period, and protect biometric templates carefully. Do not keep copies of ID documents unless you must.

CCTV must not cover examination or changing areas; put notices at entrances.

Section 5 needs notice. Section 8(5) needs safeguards. Section 8(7) needs erasure after the purpose. For staff, Section 7(i) can cover security and attendance. Section 5 · Rule 3 · Section 8(5) · Rule 6 · Section 8(7) · Rule 8 · Section 7

1. Put notices at CCTV points and reception, in the local language.
2. Ask visitors only for name, phone and whom they are meeting, unless security needs more.
3. Set a period for footage and registers, then delete.
4. Restrict who can view footage, and log viewing.
5. Check the vendor contracts for CCTV, guards and attendance systems.

• Notices in place
• Retention settings on the recorder
• Viewing log

• Photocopying visitor IDs as routine
• Footage kept until the disk fills
• Biometric systems with vendor default passwords

• Are contract and agency workers our responsibility?
• How long can we keep personal data?
• What must a vendor contract say about personal data?

Their data is your responsibility when you decide why and how it is used, for example gate passes, attendance, biometrics and safety records. The agency holds payroll and personal files, so your contract with the agency must cover how it protects that data.

Housekeeping, security and ambulance staff are often agency staff.

Section 7(i) covers employment purposes. Section 8(1) and 8(2) make you responsible for processors such as manpower agencies working on your behalf. Section 7 · Section 8(1)–(2) · Section 8(5) · Rule 6

1. List what you hold about contract workers: ID copies, photos, biometrics, attendance, medical fitness.
2. Decide who is the Data Fiduciary for each item: you or the agency.
3. Put data terms in every manpower contract.
4. Give a short notice in the workers' language at the gate or induction.
5. Delete gate and ID records on a schedule.

• Contract-worker data list
• Agency contracts with data terms
• Notice at the gate

• Photocopies of Aadhaar kept in open files
• No terms in the agency contract
• Biometric data with no deletion date

• Do we need consent for employee data?
• What about CCTV, visitor registers and biometric attendance?
• What must a vendor contract say about personal data?

You stay responsible for what your vendors do with personal data. The contract should say what data they get, for what purpose, the security they must keep, how fast they must tell you about an incident, that sub-contractors need your approval, and how data is returned or deleted at the end.

Labs, teleradiology, HIS vendors, TPAs and ambulance services.

Section 8(1) keeps responsibility with you. Section 8(2) allows a processor only under a valid contract. Rule 6 asks for security terms in that contract. Section 8(1)–(2) · Section 8(5) · Rule 6 · Section 8(6) · Rule 7 · Section 8(7) · Rule 8

1. List vendors who receive or can see personal data.
2. Rank them by how much and how sensitive.
3. Add a data-protection schedule to each contract, starting with the top ten.
4. Ask for evidence: certificates, test results, deletion confirmations.
5. Review the top vendors every year.

• Vendor register
• Signed data-protection schedules
• Annual review notes

• Relying on the vendor's standard terms
• No incident-notice time
• No exit and deletion clause

• Something has gone wrong. What happens in the first 72 hours?
• Can personal data be stored or accessed outside India?
• Does deletion have to reach backups and test copies?

Keep data for as long as its purpose needs, or as long as a law requires, and then erase it. Every organisation must keep personal data and logs for at least one year under Rule 8(3). Write a retention schedule by record type, with the law or reason against each period.

Indoor records at least 3 years (2002 regulations), PCPNDT 2 years, MTP 5 years, Schedule H1 3 years.

Section 8(7) asks for erasure when the purpose is over, unless a law requires retention. Rule 8(3) sets a one-year minimum for personal data, traffic data and logs. Section 8(7) · Rule 8 · Section 8(5) · Rule 6

1. List the record types you hold.
2. Write the period for each, with the law, regulator rule or business reason.
3. Set a trigger for the period to start: end of relationship, date of transaction, exit date.
4. Automate deletion where you can; for paper, schedule shredding.
5. Keep a deletion log.

• Retention schedule approved by Legal
• Deletion log
• Shredding or disposal certificates

• 'Keep everything forever' because storage is cheap
• Deleting before the legal minimum
• Forgetting email, shared drives and backups

• Someone asks us to delete their data. Must we?
• Does deletion have to reach backups and test copies?
• Where does personal data live in our organisation?

Contain it, then tell people. A reportable cyber incident goes to CERT-In within six hours of being noticed. Under DPDP, each affected person and the Data Protection Board must be told without delay, and the Board needs a detailed report within 72 hours. Sector regulators may have their own clock too.

A ransomware attack on the HIS needs a CERT-In report in six hours and the DPDP messages.

Section 8(6) and Rule 7 set the DPDP steps. The CERT-In Directions of 28 April 2022 set the six-hour report. A breach includes accidental disclosure and loss of access, not only hacking. Section 8(6) · Rule 7 · Section 8(5) · Rule 6

1. Name one incident lead and a back-up, with phone numbers that work at night.
2. Write the first-hour steps: isolate, preserve logs, tell the DPO and the incident lead.
3. Keep ready-made drafts for CERT-In, the regulator, the Board and affected people.
4. Decide in advance who signs off each message.
5. Rehearse once a year with the people who would actually be called.

• Incident plan with clocks
• Rehearsal record
• Incident log with times of each step

• Waiting to finish the investigation before telling anyone
• Treating a wrong email or a lost laptop as 'not a breach'
• Only IT knowing the plan

• Which logs must we keep, for how long, and where?
• What must a vendor contract say about personal data?
• Does deletion have to reach backups and test copies?

A notice must tell people, in plain words, what data you collect, why, how they can withdraw consent, how they can use their rights and how they can complain to the Data Protection Board. It has to stand on its own, separate from long terms and conditions, and be shown at the point where data is collected.

Registration desks, appointment apps, lab forms and health-camp sign-ups need short notices in the languages patients speak.

Section 5 and Rule 3 ask for a notice that can be understood on its own, with an itemised list of the data and the purpose for each item. Data you already hold from before the Act also needs a notice, as soon as reasonably practicable. Section 5 · Rule 3 · Section 6 · Sections 11–14 · Rule 14

1. List every point where personal data comes in: forms, apps, counters, calls, emails, partner feeds.
2. Write one short notice per collection point, with the data items and purpose side by side.
3. Add how to withdraw consent, how to make a request and the DPO or contact person's details.
4. Offer the notice in English and in the languages your patients actually use.
5. Keep each version with the date it went live.

• Screenshots or copies of the notice at each collection point, with dates
• Notice version history
• Translations, where used

• Hiding the notice inside terms and conditions
• One notice for everything, with no link between data items and purposes
• Forgetting old data collected before the Act

• When do we need consent, and when can we rely on a legitimate use?
• Someone withdraws consent. What has to stop, and how fast?
• Someone asks what data we hold about them. What do we send?