GDPR

How We Use Your Information

This notice explains:

  • Why the practice collects information about you and how it is used
  • Who we may share information with
  • Your right to see your health records and how we keep your records confidential

Why We Collect Information About You

In the practice 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
  • Details and records about your treatment and care
  • Results of x-rays, laboratory test 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

We will only store your information in identifiable form for a long as in necessary in and in accordance with the NHS England’s Rules.

How Your Records Are Used

The people who care for you use your records to:

  • Provide a good basis for all health decisions made by you and care professionals
  • Allow you to work with those providing care
  • Make sure your care is safe and effective, and
  • Work effectively with others providing you with care

Others may also need to use records about you to:

  • Check the quality of care (such as clinical audit)
  • Protect the health of the 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 personally confidential 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.

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, secure and accurate
  • Provide information in a format that is accessible to you (i.e., in 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 must do this by law
  • We have special permission for health or research purposes or
  • We have special permission because the interests of the public are thought to be of greater importance than your confidentiality

Our guiding principle is that we are holding your records in strict confidence.

Who Are Our Partner Organisations?

We may share information with the following main partner organisations:

  • NHS England
  • Our Commissioners
  • NHS Trusts / Organisation (Hospitals, CCG’s)
  • Ambulance Service
  • Social Services

We may also share your information, with your consent and subject to strict sharing protocols about how it will be used with:

  • Education Services
  • Local Authorities
  • Voluntary Sector Providers
  • Private Sector

Anyone who receives information from us also has a legal duty to keep it confidential.

If you believe the Trust has breached any of your Data Protection Rights

 You have a right to complain to the UK supervisory Authority as below.

Information Commissioner:

Wycliffe house
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545745
Website: www.ico.org.uk

The Legal Part

You have a right to privacy under the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act. The practice needs your personal, sensitive and confidential data in order perform our statutory health duties, in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller in compliance with Article 6 (e) of the GDPR and for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services on the in compliance with Article 9, (h) of the GDPR.

You have the right to ask for a copy of all records about you.

  • Your request should be made to the practice holding your information
  • We are required to respond to you within one month
  • You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth NHS number etc.)

To access your record, contact:

The Practice Data Protection Officer is:

Judith Jordan, Head of Integrated Governance
NHS Arden and Greater East Midlands
Westgate House
Market Street
Warwick
CV34 4DE

Tel: 0121 611 0730
Email: agem.dpo@nhs.net

If you think anything is inaccurate or incorrect, please inform the practice as soon as possible. For other rights about the use of your information pleases see our website.

Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 creates a right of access to recorded information and obliges a public authority to: 

  • Have a publication scheme in place.
  • Allow public access to information held by public authorities. 

The act covers any recorded organisational information such as reports, policies or strategies, that is held by a public authority in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by UK-wide public authorities based in Scotland, however it does not cover personal information such as patient records which are covered by the Data Protection Act. 

Public authorities include government departments, local authorities, the NHS, state schools and police forces. 

The act is enforced by the Information Commissioner who regulates both the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 2018. 

Data Choices

Your Data Matters to the NHS

Information about your health and care helps us to improve your individual care, speed up diagnosis, plan your local services and research new treatments. The NHS is committed to keeping patient information safe and always being clear about how it is used.

How Your Data is Used

Information about your individual care such as treatment and diagnosis is collected about you whenever you use health and care services.  It is also used to help us and other organisations for research and planning such as research into new treatments, deciding where to put GP clinics and planning for the number of doctors and nurses in your local hospital.  It is only used in this way when there is a clear legal basis to use the information to help improve health and care for you, your family and future generations.

Whenever possible we try to use data that does not identify you, but sometimes it is necessary to use your confidential information.

You Have A Choice

You do not need to do anything if you are happy about how your information is used.  If you do not want your confidential patient information to be used for research and planning you can choose to opt out securely online or through a telephone service.  You can change your mind about your choice at any time.

Will Choosing to Opt-Out Affect My Care and Treatment?

No choosing to opt our will not affect how information is used to support  your care and treatment.  You will still be invited for screening services, such as screenings for bowel cancer.

What do you Need to do?

If you are happy for your confidential patients information to be used for research and planning, you do not need to do anything.

To find out more about the benefits of data sharing, how data is protected or to make/change your opt-out choice visit www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.

Summary Care Record

The Summary Care Record  (SCR) has been introduced to to help healthcare staff  provide a patient with safe treatment when they need  care in an emergency or when the GP practice is closed.  Initially it will contain  your name, dob, nhs number your medications, allergies and any bad reactions to medicines that you have had.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held on central NHS databases. For further information please visit www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk or call 0845 300 6016.

If you Wish to Have a Summary Care Record

You do not need to do anything.  This will happen automatically. Healthcare staff will ask your permission every time they look at your Summary Care Records.

If You Do Not Wish to Have A Summary Care Record

If you do not want a Summary Care Record, you need to let us know by completed our Summary Care Record Opt-out form.

Your Care Connected

This allows doctors, nurses and other registered healthcare professionals working in secondary care to view information from a patient’s GP records with the patient’s permission. They can view demographics, diagnoses, medication, allergies, investigations, vaccinations, referrals, end of life wishes and safeguarding concerns. When a patient visits a participating secondary care organisation, the treating clinician will ask patients permission before accessing any information. If you would like to find out more please visit www.MidlandsYourCareConnected.nhs.uk or call 0333 150 3388.

If you wish to allow access to “your care connected” you do not need to do anything.

If you do not wish to allow access to “your care connected” you can collect an opt out form from reception or visit www.MidlandsYourCareConnected.nhs.uk.

An opt out form can be completed for each of these schemes. These are available at reception.

COVID-19 – Transparency notice

Transparency notice for GPES data for pandemic planning and research – (additional information added 26/05/2020)

This practice is supporting vital coronavirus (COVID-19) planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital. This transparency notice supplements our main practice privacy notice.

The health and social care system is facing significant pressures due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Health and care information is essential to deliver care to individuals, to support health, social care and other public services and to protect public health. Information will also be vital in researching, monitoring, tracking and managing the coronavirus outbreak. In the current emergency it has become even more important to share health and care information across relevant organisations. This practice is supporting vital coronavirus planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital, the national safe haven for health and social care data in England.

Our legal basis for sharing data with NHS Digital

NHS Digital has been legally directed to collect and analyse patient data from all GP practices in England to support the coronavirus response for the duration of the outbreak. NHS Digital will become the controller under the General Data Protection Regulation 2016 (GDPR) of the personal data collected and analysed jointly with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who has directed NHS Digital to collect and analyse this data under the COVID-19 Public Health Directions 2020 (COVID-19 Direction).

All GP practices in England are legally required to share data with NHS Digital for this purpose under the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (2012 Act). More information about this requirement is contained in the data provision notice issued by NHS Digital to GP practices.

Under GDPR our legal basis for sharing this personal data with NHS Digital is Article 6(1)(c) – legal obligation. Our legal basis for sharing personal data relating to health, is Article 9(2)(g) – substantial public interest, for the purposes of NHS Digital exercising its statutory functions under the COVID-19 Direction.

The type of personal data we are sharing with NHS Digital

The data being shared with NHS Digital will include information about patients who are currently registered with a GP practice or who have a date of death on or after 1 November 2019 whose record contains coded information relevant to coronavirus planning and research. The data contains NHS Number, postcode, address, surname, forename, sex, ethnicity, date of birth and date of death for those patients. It will also include coded health data which is held in your GP record such as details of:

  • Diagnoses and findings
  • Medications and other prescribed items
  • Investigations, tests and results
  • Treatments and outcomes
  • Vaccinations and immunisations

How NHS Digital will use and share your data

NHS Digital will analyse the data they collect and securely and lawfully share data with other appropriate organisations, including health and care organisations, bodies engaged in disease surveillance and research organisations for coronavirus response purposes only. These purposes include protecting public health, planning and providing health, social care and public services, identifying coronavirus trends and risks to public health, monitoring and managing the outbreak and carrying out of vital coronavirus research and clinical trials. The British Medical Association, the Royal College of General Practitioners and the National Data Guardian are all supportive of this initiative.

NHS Digital has various legal powers to share data for purposes relating to the coronavirus response. It is also required to share data in certain circumstances set out in the COVID-19 Direction and to share confidential patient information to support the response under a legal notice issued to it by the Secretary of State under the Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 (COPI Regulations).

Legal notices under the COPI Regulations have also been issued to other health and social care organisations requiring those organisations to process and share confidential patient information to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. Any information used or shared during the outbreak under these legal notices or the COPI Regulations will be limited to the period of the outbreak unless there is another legal basis for organisations to continue to use the information.

Data which is shared by NHS Digital will be subject to robust rules relating to privacy, security and confidentiality and only the minimum amount of data necessary to achieve the coronavirus purpose will be shared. Organisations using your data will also need to have a clear legal basis to do so and will enter into a data sharing agreement with NHS Digital. Information about the data that NHS Digital shares, including who with and for what purpose will be published in the NHS Digital data release register.

For more information about how NHS Digital will use your data please see the NHS Digital Transparency Notice for GP Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19).

National Data Opt-Out

The application of the National Data Opt-Out to information shared by NHS Digital will be considered on a case by case basis and may or may not apply depending on the specific purposes for which the data is to be used. This is because during this period of emergency, the National Data Opt-Out will not generally apply where data is used to support the coronavirus outbreak, due to the public interest and legal requirements to share information.

Your rights over your personal data

To read more about the health and care information NHS Digital collects, its legal basis for collecting this information and what choices and rights you have in relation to the processing by NHS Digital of your personal data, see:

Chaperone Policy

It is sometimes necessary for your doctor or nurse to perform intimate examinations (e.g. breast, genital or rectal examinations) as part of your care. We understand that these examinations can feel embarrassing or distressing. We can provide a chaperone (impartial observer) to be present during an intimate examination.

Please do not hesitate to tell the receptionist, doctor or nurse if you would like a chaperone.