Privacy Notice

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We understand how important it is to keep your personal information safe and secure and we take this very seriously. We have taken steps to make sure your personal information is looked after in the best possible way. We review our procedures regularly.

Please read this privacy notice (‘Privacy Notice’) carefully, as it contains important information about how we use the personal and healthcare information we collect on your behalf.

1. Why We Are Providing This Privacy Notice

We are required to provide you with this Privacy Notice by Law. It explains how we use the personal and healthcare information we collect, store and hold about you. If you are unclear about how we process or use your personal and healthcare information, or you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or any other issue regarding your personal and healthcare information, then please do contact our Data Protection Officer (details below).

The Law says:

We must let you know why we collect personal and healthcare information about you;
We must let you know how we use any personal and/or healthcare information we hold on you;
We need to inform you in respect of what we do with it;
We need to tell you about who we share it with or pass it on to and why; and
We need to let you know how long we can keep it for.

2. The Data Protection Officer

The Data Protection Officer for Shirley Health Partnership is Judith Jordan.

You can contact her by email at using our secure online form if:

You have any questions about how your information is being held;
If you require access to your information or if you wish to make a change to your information;
If you wish to make a complaint about anything to do with the personal and healthcare information we hold about you;
If you wish to make a Subject Access Request;
Or any other query relating to this Policy and your rights as a patient.

3. About Us

We, at Shirley Health Partnership (‘the Surgery’), are a Data Controller of your information. This means we are responsible for collecting, storing and handling your personal and healthcare information when you register with us as a patient.

There may be times where we also process your information. That means we use it for a particular purpose and, therefore, on those occasions we may also be Data Processors. The purposes for which we use your information are set out in this Privacy Notice.

4. Information We Collect From You

The information we collect from you will include:

Your contact details (such as your name and email address, including place of work and work contact details);
Details and contact numbers of your next of kin;
Your age range, gender, ethnicity, language, disability status, information we need to allow us to provide information in a more accessible format to you;
Details in relation to your medical history
The reason for your visit to the Surgery;
Medical notes and details of diagnosis and consultations with our GPs and other health professionals within the Surgery involved in your direct healthcare.

5. Information About You From Others

We also collect personal information about you when it is sent to us from the following:

a hospital, a consultant or any other medical or healthcare professional, or any other person involved with your general healthcare.
Insurance company –in respect of requests for medical information, with your prior approval C. Police service – in respect of a Firearms application you are making
Social Services
Solicitors – correspondence from them about you
Benefit Agency
Driving Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA)
Indeed any organisation who you give permission to ask for your medical information

6. Your Summary Care Record

Your summary care record is an electronic record of your healthcare history (and other relevant personal information) held on a national healthcare records database provided and facilitated by NHS England.

This record may be shared with other healthcare professionals and additions to this record may also be made by relevant healthcare professionals and organisations involved in your direct healthcare.

You may have the right to demand that this record is not shared with anyone who is not involved in the provision of your direct healthcare. If you wish to enquire further as to your rights in respect of not sharing information on this record then please contact the Surgery.

To find out more about the wider use of confidential personal information and to register your choice to opt out if you do not want your data to be used in this way, please visit www.nhs.uk/mydata-choice.

Note if you do choose to opt out, you can still consent to your data being used for specific purposes. However, if you are happy with this use of information you do not need to do anything. You may however change your choice at any time.

7. Who We May Provide Your Personal Information To, And Why

Whenever you use a health or care service, such as attending Accident & Emergency or using Community Care Services, important information about you is collected to help ensure you get the best possible care and treatment. This information may be passed to other approved organisations where there is a legal basis, to help with planning services, improving care, research into developing new treatments and preventing illness. All of this helps in providing better care to you and your family and future generations. However, as explained in this privacy notice, confidential information about your health and care is only used in this way where allowed by law and would never be used for any other purpose without your clear and explicit consent.

We may pass your personal information on to the following people or organisations, because these organisations may require your information to assist them in the provision of your direct healthcare needs. It, therefore, may be important for them to be able to access your information in order to ensure they may properly deliver their services to you:

Hospital professionals (such as doctors, consultants, nurses, etc);
Other GPs/Doctors;
Pharmacists;
Nurses and other healthcare professionals (eg District Nurses & Midwives);
Dentists;
Any other person that is involved in providing services related to your general healthcare, including mental health professionals e.g. Care Navigators, Pharmacists, Social Prescribers

8. Other People Who We Provide Your Information To

Commissioners;
Clinical Commissioning Groups;
Local authorities;
Community health services e.g. Care and Health Information Exchange (CHIE) – formerly Hampshire Health Record

The CHIE is an electronic summary record for people living in Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton. GP Surgeries, hospitals, social care and community care teams collect information about you and store it electronically on separate computer systems. The Care and Health Information Exchange stores summary information from these organisations in one place so that – with your consent – professionals can view it to deliver better care to you. This record contains more information than the SCR, but is only available to organisations in Hampshire. For more information please visit their website

For the purposes of complying with the law e.g. Police, Solicitors, Insurance Companies;
Anyone you have given your consent to, to view or receive your record, or part of your record. Please note, if you give another person or organisation consent to access your record we will need to contact you to verify your consent before we release that record. It is important that you are clear and understand how much and what aspects of, your record you give consent to be disclosed.

Extended Access – we provide extended access services to our patients which means you can access medical services outside of our normal working hours. In order to provide you with this service, we have formal arrangements in place with the Clinical Commissioning Group and with other practices whereby certain key “hub” practices offer this service on our behalf for you as a patient to access outside of our opening hours. This means, those key “hub” practices will have to have access to your medical record to be able to offer you the service. Please note to ensure that those practices comply with the law and to protect the use of your information, we have very robust data sharing agreements and other clear arrangements in place to ensure your data is always protected and used for those purposes only.

The key Hub practices are as follows: (enter your local Hub details below….

Southampton Primary Care Limited (SPCL) delivering services across 6 hub sites in Southampton City.

Data Extraction by the Clinical Commissioning Group – the clinical commissioning group at times extracts medical information about you, but the information we pass to them via our computer systems cannot identify you to them. This information only refers to you by way of a code that only your practice can identify (it is pseudo-anonymised). This therefore protects you from anyone who may have access to this information at the Clinical Commissioning Group from ever identifying you as a result of seeing the medical information and we will never give them the information that would enable them to do this.

There are good reasons why the Clinical commissioning Group may require this pseudonymised information, these are as follows:

For example; to better plan the provision of services across a wider locality than practice level

9. Anonymised Information

Sometimes we may provide information about you in an anonymised form. If we do so, then none of the information we provide to any other party will identify you as an individual and cannot be traced back to you.

10. Your Rights As A Patient

The Law gives you certain rights to your personal and healthcare information that we hold, as set out below:

Access and Subject Access Requests

You have the right to see what information we hold about you and to request a copy of this information.

If you would like a copy of the information we hold about you please contact our Data Protection Officer in writing. We will provide this information free of charge however, we may in some limited and exceptional circumstances have to make an administrative charge for any extra copies if the information requested is excessive, complex or repetitive.

We have one month to reply to you and give you the information that you require. We would ask, therefore, that any requests you make are in writing and it is made clear to us what and how much information you require.

Online Access

You may ask us if you wish to have online access to your medical record. However, there will be certain protocols that we have to follow in order to give you online access, including written consent and production of documents that prove your identity.

Please note that when we give you online access, the responsibility is yours to make sure that you keep your information safe and secure if you do not wish any third party to gain access.

Correction

We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate and up to date. You may ask us to correct any information you think is inaccurate. It is very important that you make sure you tell us if your contact details including your mobile phone number has changed.

Removal

You have the right to ask for your information to be removed however, if we require this information to assist us in providing you with appropriate medical services and diagnosis for your healthcare, then removal may not be possible.

Objection

We cannot share your information with anyone else for a purpose that is not directly related to your health, e.g. medical research, educational purposes, etc. We would ask you for your consent in order to do this however, you have the right to request that your personal and healthcare information is not shared by the Surgery in this way. Please note the Anonymised Information section in this Privacy Notice.

Transfer

You have the right to request that your personal and/or healthcare information is transferred, in an electronic form (or other form), to another organisation, but we will require your clear consent to be able to do this.

11. Third Parties Mentioned On Your Medical Record

Sometimes we record information about third parties mentioned by you to us during any consultation. We are under an obligation to make sure we also protect that third party’s rights as an individual and to ensure that references to them which may breach their rights to confidentiality, are removed before we send any information to any other party including yourself. Third parties can include: spouses, partners, and other family members.

12. How We Use The Information About You

We use your personal and healthcare information in the following ways:

when we need to speak to, or contact other doctors, consultants, nurses or any other medical/healthcare professional or organisation during the course of your diagnosis or treatment or on going healthcare;
when we are required by Law to hand over your information to any other organisation, such as the police, by court order, solicitors, or immigration enforcement.

We will never pass on your personal information to anyone else who does not need it, or has no right to it, unless you give us clear consent to do so.

13. Legal Justification For Collecting And Using Your Information

The Law says we need a legal basis to handle your personal and healthcare information.

CONTRACT: We have a contract with NHS England to deliver healthcare services to you. This contract provides that we are under a legal obligation to ensure that we deliver medical and healthcare services to the public.
CONSENT: Sometimes we also rely on the fact that you give us consent to use your personal and healthcare information so that we can take care of your healthcare needs. Please note that you have the right to withdraw consent at any time if you no longer wish to receive services from us.
NECESSARY CARE: Providing you with the appropriate healthcare, where necessary. The Law refers to this as ‘protecting your vital interests’ where you may be in a position not to be able to consent.
LAW: Sometimes the Law obliges us to provide your information to an organisation (see above).

14. Special Categories

The Law states that personal information about your health falls into a special category of information because it is very sensitive. Reasons that may entitle us to use and process your information may be as follows:

PUBLIC INTEREST: Where we may need to handle your personal information when it is considered to be in the public interest. For example, when there is an outbreak of a specific disease and we need to contact you for treatment, or we need to pass your information to relevant organisations to ensure you receive advice and/or treatment;
CONSENT: When you have given us consent;
VITAL INTEREST: If you are incapable of giving consent, and we have to use your information to protect your vital interests (e.g. if you have had an accident and you need emergency treatment);
DEFENDING A CLAIM: If we need your information to defend a legal claim against us by you, or by another party;
PROVIDING YOU WITH MEDICAL CARE: Where we need your information to provide you with medical and healthcare services

15. How Long We Keep Your Personal Information

We carefully consider any personal information that we store about you, and we will not keep your information for longer than is necessary for the purposes as set out in this Privacy Notice.

16. Under 16s

There is a separate privacy notice for patients under the age of 16.

17. If English Is Not Your First Language

If English is not your first language you can request a translation of this Privacy Notice. Please contact our Data Protection Officer.

18. Complaints

If you have a concern about the way we handle your personal data or you have a complaint about what we are doing, or how we have used or handled your personal and/or healthcare information, then please contact our Data Protection Officer.

However, you have a right to raise any concern or complaint with the UK information regulator, at the Information Commissioner’s Office: https://ico.org.uk/.

19. Our Website

The only website this Privacy Notice applies to is the Surgery’s website.

If you use a link to any other website from the Surgery’s website then you will need to read their respective privacy notice. We take no responsibility (legal or otherwise) for the content of other websites.

20. Cookies

The Surgery’s website uses cookies. For more information on which cookies we use and how we use them, please see our Cookies Policy. This is in the ‘Practice Policies’ section at the bottom of our homepage.

21. Security

We take the security of your information very seriously and we do everything we can to ensure that your information is always protected and secure. We regularly update our processes and systems and we also ensure that our staff are properly trained. We also carry out assessments and audits of the information that we hold about you and make sure that if we provide any other services, we carry out proper assessments and security reviews.

22. Text Messaging, Email, Telephoning and Contacting You

Because we are obliged to protect any confidential information we hold about you and we take this very seriously, it is imperative that you let us know immediately if you change any of your contact details.

We may contact you using SMS texting to your mobile phone in the event that we need to notify you about appointments and other services that we provide to you involving your direct care, therefore you must ensure that we have your up to date details. This is to ensure we are sure we are actually contacting you and not another person.

If you do not wish to be contacted by text or email please notify the surgery.

23. Where To Find Our Privacy Notice

You may find a copy of this Privacy Notice on our website, or a copy may be provided on request.

24. Changes To Our Privacy Notice

We regularly review and update our Privacy Notice.

25. Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and your information

The ICO recognises the unprecedented challenges the NHS and other health professionals are facing during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The ICO also recognise that 'Public bodies may require additional collection and sharing of personal data to protect against serious threats to public health.'

The Government have also taken action in respect of this and on 20th March 2020 the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care issued a Notice under Regulation 3(4) of The Health Service (Control of Patient Information) Regulations 2002 requiring organisations such as GP Practices to use your information to help GP Practices and other healthcare organisations to respond to and deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In order to look after your healthcare needs during this difficult time, we may urgently need to share your personal information, including medical records, with clinical and non-clinical staff who belong to organisations that are permitted to use your information and need to use it to help deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. This could (amongst other measures) consist of either treating you or a member of your family and enable us and other healthcare organisations to monitor the disease, assess risk and manage the spread of the disease.

Please be assured that we will only share information and health data that is necessary to meet yours and public healthcare needs.

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has also stated that these measures are temporary and will expire on 30th September 2020 unless a further extension is required. Any further extension will be will be provided in writing and we will communicate the same to you.

Please also note that the data protection and electronic communication laws do not stop us from sending public health messages to you, either by phone, text or email as these messages are not direct marketing.

It may also be necessary, where the latest technology allows us to do so, to use your information and health data to facilitate digital consultations and diagnoses and we will always do this with your security in mind.

If you are concerned about how your information is being used, please contact our DPO using the contact details provided in this Privacy Notice.

Summary Care Record

For the duration of the COVID 19 pandemic extended access has been deemed necessary on a national basis. Full details can be found here

This Privacy Notice was last updated on 18th May 2020.

Appendix A

Who we share your information with and why

Activity	Rationale
Integrated care Board (ICB)	Purpose – Anonymous information is shared to plan and design care services within the locality. Legal Basis – non identifiable data only. Data Processor – Southampton City
Individual Funding Requests – The CSU	Purpose – We may need to share your information with the IFR team for the funding of treatment that is not normally covered in the standard contract. Legal Basis – The clinical professional who first identifies that you may need the treatment will explain to you the information that is needed to be collected and processed in order to assess your needs and commission your care; they will gain your explicit consent to share this. Data processor – We ask NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) to do this on our behalf.
Summary Care Records	Purpose – During the Covid19 pandemic practices have been told to share details of patients personal confidential and special category data onto the summary care record. The NHS in England uses a national electronic record called the Summary Care Record (SCR) to support patient care. It contains key information from your GP record. Your SCR provides authorised healthcare staff with faster, secure access to essential information about you in an emergency or when you need unplanned care, where such information would otherwise be unavailable. Legal Basis – Direct Care. The relevant COPI notice states that its purpose: “…is to require organisations to process confidential patient information for the purposes set out in Regulation 3(1) of COPI to support the Secretary of State’s response to Covid-19 (Covid-19 Purpose). “Processing” for these purposes is defined in Regulation 3(2) and includes dissemination of confidential patient information to persons and organisations permitted to process confidential patient information under Regulation 3(3) of COPI.” Full details of the Summary Care Record supplementary privacy notice can be found here Patients have the right to opt out of having their information shared with the SCR by completion of the form which can be downloaded here and returned to the practice. Please note that by opting out of having your information shared with the Summary Care Record could result in a delay care that may be required in an emergency. Processor – NHS England and NHS Digital via GP connect
CHIE	Purpose – To provide Healthcare Professionals with complete, accurate and up to date information. This information comes from a variety of sources including GP practices, community providers, acute hospitals and social care providers. CHIE is used by GP out of hours, acute hospital doctors, ambulance service, GPs and others on caring for patients – you may opt out of having your information shared on this system. Legal Basis – This service is for your direct care and in an emergency. Data Processor – NHS SCW.
CHIA	Purpose – Is a database used for analysing trends in population health in order to identify better ways of treating patients. CHIA is a physically separate database, which receives some data from CHIE. Prior to this transfer from CHIE to CHIA patient identifiers are removed from the data. This includes names, initials, addresses, dates of birth and postcodes. NHS numbers are encrypted in the extract and cannot be read. This process is called ‘pseudonymisation’. This subset of data does not include information typed in by hand, so there is no possibility of it containing references to family members or other people. It contains only coded entries for things like allergies and prescribed drugs. It is not possible to identify any patient by looking at the ‘pseudonymised’ data on the CHIA database. People who have access to CHIA do not have access to CHIE. Data in CHIA is used to plan how health and care services will be delivered in future, based on what types of diseases are being recorded and how many are being referred to hospital etc. Data is also used to help research into new treatments for diseases. Legal basis – You can opt out of this service Data processor – NHS SCW
General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) Covid-19 Planning and Research data	Purpose : Personal confidential and Special Category data will be extracted at source from GP systems for the use of planning and research for the Covid-19 pandemic emergency period. Requests for data will be required from NHS Digital via their secure NHSX SPOC Covid-19 request process. Legal Basis : NHS Digital has been directed by the Secretary of State under section 254 of the 2012 Act under the COVID-19 Direction to establish and operate a system for the collection and analysis of the information specified for this service: GPES Data for Pandemic Planning and Research (COVID-19). A copy of the COVID-19 Direction is published here. Patients who have expressed an opt out preference via Type 1 objections with their GP surgery not to have their data extracted for anything other than their direct care will not be party to this data extraction. Processor : NHS Digital
Other GP practices	Purpose - We will enable other GPs and staff in other GP practices to have access to your medical record to allow you to receive acute medical care within that service. Legal Basis – this service is for your direct care and is fully consented, permission to share your medical record will be gained prior to an appointment being made in the service and again once you are in the consultation. Data processor – Your registered surgery will continue to be responsible for your full medical record.
Community Nursing - Complex Care Team Diabetes Team Home Visiting Service Leg Ulcer Service Heart Failure Service Multi-Disciplinary Team District Nurses Midwives	Purpose - We will enable the Community Nursing Team to have access to your medical record to allow you to receive care from the community nurses for the services listed. Legal Basis – these services are for your direct care and is fully consented, permission to share your medical record will be gained prior to an appointment being made in the service Data processor – Your registered surgery will continue to be responsible for your full medical record
Pharmacists from the ICB	Purpose – to provide monitoring and advice in line with the national directive for prescribing. Anonymous data is collected by the ICB. Legal Basis – direct care. Data Processor – Fareham & Gosport and SE Hants ICB.
MASH – Multi Agency Safeguarding Board - Safeguarding Children Safeguarding Adults	Purpose – We share information with health and social care authorities for safeguarding issues. Legal Basis - Because of public Interest issues, e.g. to protect the safety and welfare of Safeguarding we will rely on a statutory basis rather than consent to share information for this use. Data Processor – Multi Agency Safeguarding Authorities.
Risk Stratification	Purpose – Risk stratification is a process for identifying and managing patients who are at high risk of emergency hospital admission. Risk stratification tools use various combinations of historic information about patients, for example, age, gender, diagnoses and patterns of hospital attendance and admission and primary care data collected from GP practice record systems. GPs will be able to identify which of their patients are at risk in order to offer a preventative service to them. Legal Basis - Risk stratification has been approved by the Secretary of State, through the Confidentiality Advisory Group of the Health Research Authority. NHS England encourages GPs to use risk stratification tools as part of their local strategies for supporting patients with long-term conditions and to help and prevent avoidable hospital admissions and to promote quality improvement in GP practices. Data Processors – NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) to assist us with providing Risk Stratification tools. Data Processing activities for Risk Stratification – The GP practice instructs its GP IT system supplier to provide primary care data identifiable by your NHS Number. Opting Out - If you do not wish information about you to be included in our risk stratification programme, please contact the GP Practice. They can add a code to your records that will stop your information from being used for this purpose. Further information about risk stratification is available from the NHS website
Quality monitoring, concerns and serious incidents	Purpose – We need to ensure that the health services you receive are safe, effective and of excellent quality. Sometimes concerns are raised about the care provided or an incident has happened that we need to investigate. You may not have made a complaint to us directly but the health care professional looking after you may decide that we need to know in order to help make improvements. Legal Basis – The health care professional raising the concern or reporting the incident should make every attempt to talk to you about this and gain your consent to share information about you with us. Sometimes they can do this without telling us who you are. We have a statutory duty under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, Part 1, Section 26, in securing continuous improvement in the quality of services provided. Data processor – We share your information with health care professionals that may include details of the care you have received and any concerns about that care. In order to look into these concerns we may need to talk to other organisations such as Fareham & Gosport and SE Hants ICB as well as other Public bodies and Government agencies such as NHS Improvement, the Care Quality Commission, NHS England as well as the providers of your care.
Commissioning, planning, contract monitoring and evaluation	Purpose – We share aggregated, anonymous, patient data about services we have provided. Legal Basis - Our legal basis for collecting and processing information for this purpose is statutory. We set our reporting requirements as part of our contracts with NHS service providers and do not ask them to give us identifiable data about you. If patient level data was required for clarity and extensive evaluation of a service, consent will be gained for the surgery to share this information. Data Processor – Various organisations, ICB, third party organisations commissioned by the NHS to perform actuarial services, NHS England eConsult – anonymised aggregated numbers of contacts are shared for the online consultation tool.
National Registries	National Registries (such as the Learning Disabilities Register) have statutory permission under Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006, to collect and hold service user identifiable information without the need to seek informed consent from each individual service user.
Care Quality Commission	CQC has powers under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 to access and use information where they consider it is necessary to carry out their functions as a regulator. CQC relies on its legal powers to access information rather than consent, therefore may use its powers to access records even in cases where objections have been raised. CQC Privacy Notice is available on the CQC website
Surveys and asking for your feedback	Sometimes we may offer you the opportunity to take part in a survey that the practice is running. We will not generally ask you to give us any personal confidential information as part of any survey. Legal Basis – you are under no obligation to take part and where you do, we consider your participation as consent to hold and use the responses you give us. Data Processor – Survey Monkey, We love surveys
Research	Purpose - To support research oriented proposals and activities in our commissioning system Legal Basis - Your consent will be obtained by the organisation holding your records before identifiable information about you is disclosed for any research. If this is not possible then the organisation wishing to use your information will need to seek formal approval from The Independent Group Advising on the Release of Data (IGARD) We may write to you offering you the opportunity to take part in research, for which your consent will be sought.
Screening	Purpose - To support disease monitoring and health prevention for specific patients Legal Basis - Your consent is sought either implicitly or explicitly. You are invited to be screened either by the practice or the screening provider directly. You can choose to consent or dissent at any point in the screening.
Hampshire County Council	Purpose - To support disease monitoring and health prevention for specific patients Legal Basis - Your consent is sought either implicitly or explicitly. You are invited to be screened either by the practice or the screening provider directly. You can choose to consent or dissent at any point in the screening.
Other organisations who provide support services for us	Purpose - The Practice may use the services of additional organisations (other than those listed above), who will provide additional expertise to support the Practice. Legal Basis - We have entered into contracts with other organisations to provide some services for us or on our behalf. Confidential – Restore Datashred provide confidential waste destruction services Restore for the storage and transfer of patient notes NHS England use City Sprint to transfer medical records Continence and Stoma Service – for direct care in providing continence/stoma products and monitoring. i-Talk Counselling service Signposters Dementia Friendly Springboard Health Visitors Palliative Nurses Clinical Waste Livi - Enhanced Access GP Appointments
Medication/Prescribing	Purpose : Prescriptions containing personal identifiable and health data will be shared with chemists/pharmacies, in order to provide patients with essential medication or treatment as their health needs dictate. This process is achieved either by face to face contact with the patient or electronically. Where patients have specified a nominated pharmacy they may wish their repeat or acute prescriptions to be ordered and sent directly to the pharmacy making a more efficient process. Arrangements can also be made with the pharmacy to deliver medication Legal Basis : Article 6(1)(e); “necessary… in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller’ And Article 9(2)(h) as stated below. Patients will be required to nominate a preferred pharmacy. Processor – Pharmacy of choice

Privacy Notice - Children

What is a privacy notice?

A privacy notice helps your Doctor’s surgery tell you how it uses information it has about you, like your name, address, telephone, date of birth and all of the notes the Doctor or Nurse makes about you in your medical record.

Why do we need one?

Your Doctor’s surgery needs a privacy notice to make sure it meets the legal requirements which are contained in the ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ (GDPR).

What is the GDPR?

This is a document that helps your Doctor’s surgery keep information about you secure.

It makes sure your Doctor, Nurse and any other staff at the surgery follows the rules and keep your information safe.

What information do we collect about you?

We only collect information that we need to help us keep you healthy, records of appointments and visits. It is also helpful if we have your correct name, address, telephone no and information about your parents or guardian.

GP Data for Planning & Research

The data held in the GP medical records of patients is used every day to support health and care planning and research in England, helping to find better treatments and improve patient outcomes for everyone. NHS Digital has developed a new way to collect this data, called the General Practice Data for Planning and Research data collection.

The new data collection reduces burden on GP practices, allowing doctors and other staff to focus on patient care.

Patient data collected from general practice is needed to support a wide variety of research and analysis to help run and improve health and care services. Whilst the data collected in other care settings such as hospitals is valuable in understanding and improving specific services, it is the patient data in general practice that helps us to understand whether the health and care system as a whole is working for patients.

This data will be shared from 1 July 2021. Data may be shared from the GP medical records about:

any living patient registered at a GP practice in England when the collection started - this includes children and adults
any patient who died after 1 July 2021, and was previously registered at a GP practice in England when the data collection started
NHS Digital will not collect patients’ names or addresses. Any other data that could directly identify patients (such as NHS Number, date of birth, full postcode) is replaced with unique codes which are produced by de-identification software before the data is shared with NHS Digital.
This process is called pseudonymisation and means that patients will not be identified directly in the data. NHS Digital will be able to use the software to convert the unique codes back to data that could directly identify patients in certain circumstances, and where there is a valid legal reason.

We will collect structured and coded data from patient medical records.

NHS Digital will collect:

data about diagnoses, symptoms, observations, test results, medications, allergies, immunisations, referrals, recalls and appointments, including information about physical, mental and sexual health.

data on sex, ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

data about staff who have treated patients.

NHS Digital does not collect:

name and address (except for postcode, protected in a unique coded form).

written notes (free text), such as the details of conversations with doctors and nurses

images, letters, and documents.

coded data that is not needed due to its age - for example medication, referral and appointment data that is over 10 years old

coded data that GPs are not permitted to share by law - for example certain codes about IVF treatment, and certain information about gender re-assignment.

Opting out

If you don’t want your identifiable patient data to be shared for purposes except for your own care, you can opt-out by registering a Type 1 Opt-out or a National Data Opt-out, or both.

These opt-outs are different and they are explained in more detail below. Your individual care will not be affected if you opt-out using either option.

Type 1 Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital collecting your data)
NHS Digital will not collect data from GP practices about patients who have registered a Type 1 Opt-out with their practice.

This collection will start on 1 July 2021 so if you do not want your data to be shared with NHS Digital please register your Type 1 Opt-out with your GP practice by 23 June 2021.

If you register a Type 1 Opt-out after this collection has started, no more of your data will be shared with us. We will however still hold the patient data which was shared with us before you registered the Type 1 Opt-out.

If you do not want NHS Digital to share your identifiable patient data with anyone else for purposes beyond your own care, then you can also register a National Data Opt-out.

National Data Opt-out (opting out of NHS Digital sharing your data)

NHS Digital will collect data from GP medical records about patients who have registered a National Data Opt-out. The National Data Opt-out applies to identifiable patient data about your health, which is called confidential patient information.

NHS Digital won’t share any confidential patient information about you - this includes GP data, or other data we hold, such as hospital data - with other organisations, unless there is an exemption to this.

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