Confidentiality & Medical Records
The practice complies with data protection and access to medical records legislation. Identifiable information about you will be shared with others in the following circumstances:
- To provide further medical treatment for you e.g. from district nurses and hospital services.
- To help you get other services e.g. from the social work department. This requires your consent.
- When we have a duty to others e.g. in child protection cases anonymised patient information will also be used at local and national level to help the Health Board and Government plan services e.g. for diabetic care.
If you do not wish anonymous information about you to be used in such a way, please let us know.
Reception and administration staff require access to your medical records in order to do their jobs. These members of staff are bound by the same rules of confidentiality as the medical staff.
You can access and use our website without giving us any personal information.
Our practice complies fully with all data protection and access to records legislation.
The practice holds information about patients registered with the practice for the purposes of providing services and ensuring a high standard of patient care.
This information may include:
- Personal details (date of birth, address etc.)
- Any contact you have with the Practice (appointments, telephone conversations etc.)
- Notes about you and your health
- Details of your treatment and care
- Results of any investigations (blood tests etc.)
- Relevant information provided by other healthcare professionals, relatives or carers
Non-clinical members of staff have access to the information that they need in order to do their jobs. They are bound by the same legal, ethical and contractual obligations of confidentiality.
There are occasions when the practice may share information with other services or healthcare professionals. This will only be under the following circumstances:
- When you have specifically consented to sharing your information
- When the practice is required to share certain information by law
- When there is a clear public interest in sharing information
Keeping your personal information secure is taken very seriously.
There are many steps we have taken in order to ensure that your personal data is looked after correctly and securely.
Please read the document carefully as it contains important information on how we use the personal and healthcare information we collect on your behalf:
The below document sets out the steps taken by the practice to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and the Data Protection Act 2018, including your rights to access your information and to have your information corrected where necessary.
Risk Stratification
Risk stratification involves applying computer searches to your medical records from a number of sources, including NHS trusts and GP practices, to identify those patients who are most at risk of certain medical conditions, such as heart disease, and who will benefit from clinical care to help prevent or better treat their condition. It’s a process for identifying and managing patients who are most likely to need hospital or other healthcare services, so that such patients can receive additional care/support from their GP or care team as early as possible. The aim is to prevent ill health and possible future hospital stays, rather than wait for you to become sick.
Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 provides a statutory legal basis to process personal health related data for risk stratification purposes.
Please be reassured that any information which identifies you – resulting from the aforementioned computer searches – will only be seen by this Practice.
If you do not wish information about you to be included in the risk stratification programme, please let us know. We can add a code to your health care record that will stop your information from being used for this purpose
Freedom of Information
Information about the General Practioners and the practice required for disclosure under this act can be made available to the public. All requests for such information should be made to the practice manager.
Access to Records
In accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and Access to Health Records Act, patients may request to see their medical records. Such requests should be made through the practice manager and may be subject to an administration charge. No information will be released without the patient consent unless we are legally obliged to do so.
Complaints
We make every effort to give the best service possible to everyone who attends our practice.
However, we are aware that things can go wrong resulting in a patient feeling that they have a genuine cause for complaint. If this is so, we would wish for the matter to be settled as quickly, and as amicably, as possible.
To pursue a complaint please contact the practice manager who will deal with your concerns appropriately. Further written information is available regarding the complaints procedure from reception.
Violence Policy / Zero Tolerance
The NHS operate a zero tolerance policy with regard to violence and abuse and the practice has the right to remove violent patients from the list with immediate effect in order to safeguard practice staff, patients and other persons. Violence in this context includes actual or threatened physical violence or verbal abuse which leads to fear for a person’s safety.
If you do not respect the rights of our staff we may choose to inform the police and make arrangements for you to be removed from our practice list.