Practice Policies

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.

Sharing your information

Each time you speak to a doctor, visit the surgery or use one of our services, we update your electronic patient record. This record includes information such as:

• notes made by the GP or other health care professional.
• information about your care and treatment
• blood tests or X-ray results 
• details of your medications
• correspondence between you and your GP
• basic information about people who are connected with you, such as your next of kin or children.

GPs and other health and care professionals in the practice use this information to provide you with care and treatment. 

We also share information from your records with other health and care services in order for them to provide you with care and treatment. This means that they have the latest information about you, which helps them understand your needs and make the best decisions about your care. It also means that you don’t have to provide the same information to each person that you see.

Data from your patient record may also be shared with other health and care services or approved organisations to help plan and improve services, develop new medicines or treatments, or find new ways of preventing people becoming ill.

The data is in a coded format and does not normally contain information that you can be identified from (such as your name, date of birth of postcode). This is called anonymised data. 

NHS and social care services take respecting your privacy and keeping your information and data safe and secure very seriously. Strict rules and processes are followed to protect your information and data. Legal agreements must be in place before any information or data is shared or accessed by another organisation. Information and data are shared using secure IT systems which follow industry security standards and are kept-up-to date against the latest cybersecurity threats.

NHS and social care services have a legal basis to share information from your health and care records for these purposes. This is set out in the Data Protection Act 2018. 

You have the right to object to your information being shared.

• If you do not want your information shared by health and care services who are giving you care and treatment, you should contact the surgery and we will provide you with an ‘opt-out’ form. Sharing your information can help make sure that you get the right treatment at the right time or could be important in an emergency.
• If you do not want data from your health and care records shared for reasons such as planning and improving services or research into new cures and treatments you can object online or by telephone through the national data opt-out service. 

For more information on how NHS and social care services share information from your practice and other health and care records visit these web pages.

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.

Please view the entire Freedom Of Information policy and GP earnings.

Access to Records

In accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 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

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. In this situation we will notify the patient in writing of their removal from the list and record in the patient’s medical records the fact of the removal and the circumstances leading to it.