How we use your personal information
This Privacy notice explains why the GP practice collects information about you and how that information may be used.
The health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (e.g., NHS Trust, GP Surgery, Walk-in clinic, etc.).
These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.
NHS health records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and we use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Records which this GP Practice holds about you may include the following information.
- Details about you, such as your address, if you have a carer or legal representative, emergency contact details.
- Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency appointments, etc.
- Notes and reports about your health • Details about your treatment and care
- Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays etc.
- Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you
To ensure you receive the best possible care, your records are used to facilitate the care you receive. Information held about you may be used to help protect the health of the public and to help us manage the NHS. Information may be used within the GP practice for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided. Some of this information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes. Where we do this, we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified. Sometimes your information may be requested to be used for research purposes in a fully anonymised format. However, where identifiable information is required the surgery will always gain your consent before releasing the information for this purpose.
Ways we may communicate with you
We may need to contact you for a variety of reasons including to:
- Offer you a new appointment or alter an existing one
- Send you a reminder of an existing appointment
- Arrange for transport to be provided
- Ask your opinion of our services
- Tell you about other health and social care services (such as Flu Jabs)
Our standard way to contact you is SMS text messaging or telephone. If we fail to contact you by these methods, we would also use email or letter. If you do not wish to be contacted by these methods, please inform us.
General Data Protection Regulation Legal Basis for processing your information in this way
Where it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority and it is for the purpose of medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems.
Objections / Complaints
Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at the GP Practice, please contact the Practice Manager in the first instance.
You have a right to ask the following:
- Access to or obtain a copy of the information held about you (see Access to Personal Information below for how to request this)
- For your information to be corrected if it is factually incorrect
- Object to your information being processed in certain circumstances
If you are still unhappy following a review by the Practice you can then you can complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO). www.ico.org.uk, casework@ico.org.uk, or telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745
How the NHS and care services use your information
Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care services, important information about you is collected in a patient record for that service.
Collecting this information helps to ensure you get the best possible care and treatment.
The information collected about you when you use these services can also be used and provided to other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care, for instance to help with:
- improving the quality and standards of care provided
- Research into the development of new treatments
- preventing illness and diseases
- monitoring safety
- planning services
This may only take place when there is a clear legal basis to use this information. All these uses help to provide better health and care for you, your family and future generations.
Most of the time, anonymised data is used for research and planning so that you cannot be identified in which case your confidential patient information isn’t needed.
You have a choice about whether you want your confidential patient information to be used in this way. If you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. If you do choose to opt-out your confidential patient information will still be used to support your individual care.
To find out more or to register your choice to opt out, please visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.
On this web page you will:
- See what is meant by confidential patient information
- Find examples of when confidential patient information is used for individual care and examples of when it is used for purposes beyond individual care
- Find out more about the benefits of sharing data
- Understand more about who uses the data
- Find out how your data is protected
- Be able to access the system to view, set or change your opt-out setting
- Find the contact telephone number if you want to know any more or to set/change your opt-out by phone
See the situations where the opt-out will not apply
You can also find out more about how patient information is used at:
https://www.hra.nhs.uk/information-about-patients/ (which covers health and care research); and
https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/what-you-need-know (which covers how and why patient information is used, the safeguards and how decisions are made)
You can change your mind about your choice at any time.
Data being used or shared for purposes beyond individual care does not include your data being shared with insurance companies or used for marketing purposes and data would only be used in this way with your specific agreement.
Health and care organisations have systems and processes in place so they can apply your national data opt-out choice. Our organisation is able to apply your national data opt-out choice to any confidential patient information we may use or share with other organisations for purposes beyond your individual care.
Improving Care Pathways
The Practice will at times employ staff from the local NHS Integrated Care Board to undertake reviews of referrals and pathways of care for patients registered at the practice and compare these to referrals and pathways at other practices for the same diagnoses. These are then reviewed with an appropriately qualified clinician to ensure patients are able to access the most appropriate care for them, in the right place (possibly closer to home) and by the right person, first time.
General Data Protection Regulation Legal Basis for processing your information in this way
Where it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority and it is for the purpose of medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems.
Individuals Rights in respect of processing the above information
Access
Rectification
Object to the processing for this purpose
If you are happy for your data to be extracted and used for the purposes described in this privacy notice, then you do not need to do anything. If you have any concerns about how your data is shared, then please contact the practice.
How do we maintain the confidentiality of your records?
We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:
- Data Protection Legislation
- Human Rights Act 1998
- Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
- Health and Social Care Act 2012
- NHS Codes of Confidentiality, Information Security and Records Management
- Information: To Share or Not to Share Review
Every member of staff who works for an NHS organisation has a legal obligation to keep information about you confidential.
We will only ever use or pass on information about you if others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (i.e. life or death situations), where the law requires information to be passed on and / or in accordance with the new information sharing principle following Dame Fiona Caldicott’s information sharing review (Information to share or not to share) where “The duty to share information can be as important as the duty to protect patient confidentiality.” This means that health and social care professionals should have the confidence to share information in the best interests of their patients within the framework set out by the Caldicott principles. They should be supported by the policies of their employers, regulators and professional bodies.
Retention of Records
All NHS records are held in line with the Records Management Code of Practice for Health and Social Care 2016
Who are our partner organisations?
We may also have to share your information, subject to strict agreements on how it will be used, with the following organisations.
NHS Trusts / Foundation Trusts • GP’s • NHS Commissioning Support Units •Townships 2 Network Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists • Private Sector Providers • Voluntary Sector Providers • Ambulance Trusts • NHS Integrated Care Board • Social Care Services • Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) • Local Authorities • Education Services • Fire and Rescue Services • Police & Judicial Services • Voluntary Sector Providers • Private Sector Providers • Other ‘data processors’ which you will be informed of
You will be informed who your data will be shared with and in some cases asked for explicit consent for this to happen when this is required.
We may also use external companies to process personal information, such as for archiving purposes. These companies are bound by contractual agreements to ensure information is kept confidential and secure.
Access to personal information
You have a right under the Data Protection Legislation to request access to view or to obtain copies of what information the surgery holds about you and to have it amended where it is factually inaccurate.
In order to request this, you need to do the following:
- Your request must be made directly to the GP Practice– for information from the hospital you should contact them directly.
- We are required to respond to you within 28 days, although this may be extended
if the request is complex, but you should be informed of any delays. • You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number and details of your request) in order that your records can be located efficiently.
NB/ You may be asked for proof of identity, so we know we are releasing your information to the correct person
Change of Details
It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details are incorrect, such as date of birth in order for this to be amended. You have a responsibility to inform us of any changes, so our records are accurate and up to date for you. This includes your mobile telephone number.
How to complain
If you have any concerns about our use of your personal information, you can make a complaint to us by contacting the Practice Manager Julie Coakley julie.coakley@nhs.net
You can also complain to the ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.
The ICO’s address:
Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Helpline number: 0303 123 1113
ICO website: https://www.ico.org.uk