Your health information

NHS health records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both it is important that you are ensured that your information is kept confidential and secure. Your records may include the following information:

• Details about you, such as your address, carer, legal representative, emergency contact details
• Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits or emergency appointments
• Notes and reports about your health
• Details about your treatment and care
• Results of investigations such as laboratory tests and x-rays
• Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you

Information held about you may be used to ensure you receive the best possible and 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.

With your consent your information may be requested to be used for research purposes – the surgery will always gain your consent before releasing the information for this purpose.

We follow strict guidance to keep your information safe

We will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

• Data Protection Act 1998
• Human Rights Act 1998
• Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
• Health and Social Care Act 2012
• NHS Codes of Confidentiality, Information Security and Records Management

Every member of staff who works for an NHS organization 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 Caldecott’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”.

Who we may share your information with

• NHS Trusts / Foundation Trusts
• GPs
• NHS Commissioning Support Units
• Independent Contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists
• Private Sector Providers
• Voluntary Sector Providers
• Ambulance Trusts
• Clinical Commissioning Groups
• 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 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 Act 1998 to request access to view or to obtain copies of what information the surgery holds about you and to have it amended should it be inaccurate. In order to request this, you need to do the following:

• Your request must be made in writing to the practice – for information from the hospital you should write direct to them
• There may be a charge to have a printed copy of the information held about you
• We are required to respond to you within 40 days
• You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number and details of your request) so that your identity can be verified and your records located

Objections / Complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at the practice, please contact the practice manager. If you are still unhappy following a review by the practice, you can then complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) via their website: www.ico.gov.uk

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.

Notification

The Data Protection Act 1998 requires organisations to register a notification with the Information Commissioner to describe the purposes for which they process personal and sensitive information.

This information is publicly available on the Information Commissioners Office.

Website: www.ico.org.uk

The practice is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Who is the Data Controller?

The Data Controller, responsible for keeping your information secure and confidential is:

Dr W S Riddell

Complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed by the practice please contact the practice manager at the following address:

Nina Chambers

Crags Health Care
174 Elmton Road Creswell
S80 4LG

Telephone: 01909 809079

If you are still unhappy following a review by the practice you can then complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Website: www.ico.org.uk

Telephone: 0303 123 1113