Privacy Policy

How we use your medical records:

• This practice handles medical records according to the laws on data protection and confidentiality.
• We share medical records with health professionals who are involved in providing you with care and treatment. This is on a need to know and event by event basis.
• Some of your data is automatically copied to the Shared Care Summary Record; a secure government database of patients’ basic medical information. It is used to reduce errors and avoid delays if a patient requires treatment outside of the surgery. It can only be accessed by authorised personnel involved in the patient’s direct care.
• We share some of your data with local out of hours / urgent or emergency care services so that, in an emergency, you can receive the best care possible.
• Data about you is used to manage national screening campaigns such as Flu, Cervical cytology and Diabetes prevention.
• Data about you, usually de-identified, is used to check and manage the quality of care provided by the NHS.
• We share information when the law requires us to do so, for instance; when we are inspected, reporting certain illnesses or safeguarding vulnerable people.
• We may also share medical records for medical research to try and improve treatments and patient care.
• We retain and destroy records in line with the guidance set by the Information Governance Alliance.