TROSNANT LODGE MEDICAL PRACTICE & NORTH ROAD SURGERY
PRACTICE FAIR PROCESSING & PRIVACY EXTRACT
Your personal information & how we use it:
This fair processing notice explains why the GP practice collects information about you and how that information may be used.
The health care professionals who provide you with care maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received previously (e.g. NHS Trust, GP Surgery, etc.). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.
NHS health records may be electronic, on paper or a mixture of both, and we use a combination of working practices and technology to ensure that your information is kept confidential and secure. Records which this GP Practice hold about you may include the following information;
- Details about you, such as your address, legal representative, emergency contact details
- Any contact the surgery has had with you, such as appointments, clinic visits, emergency appointments, etc.
- Notes and reports about your health
- Details about your treatment and care
- Results of investigations such as laboratory tests, x-rays etc
- Relevant information from other health professionals, relatives or those who care for you.
To ensure you receive the best possible care, your records are used to facilitate the care you receive. Information held about you may be used 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. Sometimes 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.
Risk stratification data tools are increasingly being used in the NHS to help determine a person’s risk of suffering a particular condition, preventing an unplanned or (re)admission and identifying a need for preventive intervention. Information about you is collected from a number of sources including NHS Trusts and from this GP Practice. A risk score is then arrived at through an analysis of your de-identified information and is only provided back to your GP as data controller in an identifiable form. Risk stratification enables your GP to focus on preventing ill health and not just the treatment of sickness. If necessary your GP may be able to offer you additional services.
Confidentiality of your records:
We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:
- General Data Protection Regulations 2018
- Data Protection Act 1998
- Human Rights Act 1998
- Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
- Health and Social Care Act 2012
- NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Information Security
Every member of staff who works for an NHS organisation 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 3rd 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’s Caldicott 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.” This means that health and social care professionals should have the confidence to share information in the best interests of their patients within the framework set out by the Caldicott principles. They should be supported by the policies of their employers, regulators and professional bodies.
Personal information access:
You have a right under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018 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. You can request this by contacting the surgery. Alternatively, you can send a written request or email to the practice outlining what information you require. The information will then be made available for you to collect from the practice. There is no charge for this and ordinarily your details will be available for collection within one calendar month of the request being made.
Concerns/complaints:
Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at the practice then please contact the Practice Manager. If you are still unhappy following a review by the GP practice, you can then complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) via their website www.ico.org.uk.
If you are happy for your data to be extracted and used for the purposes described in this fair processing notice then you do not need to do anything.
If you do not want your personal data being extracted and leaving the GP practice for any of the purposes described, you need to let us know as soon as possible.
Freedom of Information Act 2000:
This Act requires the practice to produce a publication scheme outlining the “classes” of information that it intends to routinely make available.
Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations:
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) sit alongside the data protection act and the GDPR. They give people specific privacy rights in relation to electronic communications.
There are specific rules on:
- Marketing calls, emails, texts and faxes;
- Cookies (and similar technologies)
We use text messages for a variety of reasons:
- Appointment reminders
- Invitation to specific clinics, for example, flu vaccination or chronic disease if eligible;
- General information, for example COVID-19 pandemic
We only use email communication as a way of replying to you with requested information or if we feel it is in the best interests of your care.
If you wish to opt out from ever receiving text messages, please contact the surgery and we will update your preferences.
