How we use your Health Records
This practice is supporting vital coronavirus (COVID-19) planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital. For more information about this see: www.digital.nhs.uk/coronavirus/gpes-data-for-pandemic-planning-and-research/general-practice-transparency-notice
How we keep your records confidential
Everyone working for the NHS has a legal duty to keep information about you confidential
We have a duty to :
- Maintain full and accurate records of the care we provide to you
- Keep records about you confidential and secure
- Provide information in a format that is accessible to you (e.g. large type if you are partially sighted)
We will not share information that identifies you for any reason unless:
- You ask us to do so
- We ask and you give us specific permission
- We have to do this by law
- We have special permission for health or research purposes
- We have special permission because the interests of the public are thought to be of greater importance than your confidentiality—for example, if you had a serious medical condition that may put others you had come into contact with at risk
Information Sharing
We may be required or asked to share information, with your consent and subject to strict sharing protocols on how it will be used, with:
- NHS England or HSCIC
- Clinical Commissioning Groups
- Social Services
- Education Services
- Local Authorities
- Voluntary Sector Providers
- Private Sector
- Other health providers such as the hospital
Anyone who receives information from us also has a legal duty to:
Keep it Confidential
Why we collect information about you
In the National Health Service we aim to provide you with the highest quality of health care. To do this we must keep records about you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide to you.
These records may include:
- Basic details about you such as address, date of birth, next of kin
- Contact we have had with you such as clinical visits
- Notes and reports about your health
- Details and records about your treatment and care
- Results of x-rays, laboratory tests, etc.
- Relevant information from people who care for you and know you well such as health professionals and relatives
It is good practice for people in the NHS who provide care to:
- discuss and agree with you what they are going to record about you
- give you a copy of letters they are writing about you, and
- show you what they have recorded about you, if you ask
How your records are used
The people who care for you use your records to:
- Provide a good basis for all health decisions made in consultation with you and other health care professionals
- Deliver appropriate health care
- Make sure your health care is safe and effective, and
- Work effectively with others providing you with health care
Others may also need to use records about you to:
- Check the quality of health care (such as clinical audit)
- Protect the health of the general public
- Keep track of NHS spending
- Manage the health service
- Help investigate any concerns or complaints you or your family have about your health care
- Teach health workers and
- Help with research
Some information will be held centrally to be used for statistical purposes. In these instances we take strict measures to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified.
We use anonymous information, wherever possible, but on occasions we may use personal identifiable information for essential NHS purposes such as research and auditing. However, this information will only be used with your consent, unless the law requires us to pass on the information.
You have the right
You have the right to confidentiality under the Data Protection Act 2017 (GDPR), the Human Rights Act 1998 and the common law duty of confidence (the Disability Discrimination and the Race Relations Acts may also apply).
You also have the right to ask for a copy of all records about you.
- Your request must be made in writing to the organisation holding your information
- We are required to respond to you within 30 working days
- You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number etc.)
- You will be required to provide ID before any information is released to you
- You have the right to obtain a copy of records in permanent form
- You have the right to request that information is in an intelligible format with medical abbreviations explained
- You have the right to view the records without obtaining a copy.
If you think anything is inaccurate or incorrect, please inform the organisation holding your information.
Should you have any concerns about how your information is being managed by the practice please contact .
Mrs J Cockar Practice Manager