St Francis Surgery: Pilgrims Close, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, SO53 4ST

Park Surgery: Hursley Road, Chandlers Ford, Eastleigh, SO53 2ZH

Email    Tel: 023 8025 2131

Contact Details

Privacy Policy

Privacy Notice

Park and St Francis Surgery - Privacy Notice

 

Confidentiality Policy

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.

 

Use of AI based recording tool in Consultations

We may use AI based recording tools during your consultation to help better understand your symptoms and support the care provided by your healthcare team.

Your privacy, safety, and quality of care remain our top priorities.

If you have any questions, please speak with a staff member.

 

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 Business and General Practice Manager.

 

Access & Subject Access Requests

You have the right to see what information we hold about you and to request a copy of this information. Any requests for copies of medical records will need to be 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 of if the information requested is excessive, complex or repetitive.

We have one month to reply to you and give 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.

 

Your information, what you need to know

This privacy notice explains why we collect information about you, how that information will be used, how we keep it safe and confidential and what your rights are in relation to this.

 

Why we collect information about you

Health care professionals who provide you with care are required by law to maintain records about your health and any treatment or care you have received within any NHS organisation. These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare and help us to protect your safety.

We collect and hold data for the purpose of providing healthcare services to our patients and running our organisation which includes monitoring the quality of care that we provide. In carrying out this role we will collect information about you which helps us respond to your queries or secure specialist services. We will keep your information in written form and/or in digital form. The records will include basic details about you, such as your name and address. They will also contain more sensitive information about your health and also information such as outcomes of needs assessments.

 

Details we collect about you

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. from Hospitals, GP Surgeries, A&E, etc.). These records help to provide you with the best possible healthcare.

Records which this GP Practice will hold about you will include the following:

  • Details about you, such as your address and next of kin
  • 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

 

How we keep your information confidential and safe

Everyone working for our organisation is subject to the Common Law Duty of Confidence. Information provided in confidence will only be used for the purposes advised with consent given by the patient, unless there are other circumstances covered by the law. The NHS Digital Code of Practice on Confidential Information applies to all NHS staff and they are required to protect your information, inform you of how your information will be used, and allow you to decide if and how your information can be shared. All our staff are expected to make sure information is kept confidential and receive regular training on how to do this.

The health records we use will 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. Your records are backed up securely in line with NHS standard procedures. We ensure that the information we hold is kept in secure locations, is protected by appropriate security and access is restricted to authorised personnel.

We also make sure external data processors that support us are legally and contractually bound to operate and prove security arrangements are in place where data that could or does identify a person are processed.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and will only use information collected lawfully in accordance with:

  • Data Protection Act 2018
  • General Data Protection Regulation
  • Human Rights Act
  • Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
  • NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Information Security

  • Health and Social Care Act 2015

  • And all applicable legislation
  • We maintain our duty of confidentiality to you at all times. We will only ever use or pass on information about you if we reasonably believe that others involved in your care have a genuine need for it. We will not disclose your information to any third party without your permission unless there are exceptional circumstances (such as a risk of serious harm to yourself or others) or where the law requires information to be passed on. 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.  

 

How we use your information

Improvements in information technology are also making it possible for us to share data with other healthcare organisations for the purpose of providing you, your family and your community with better care. For example it is possible for healthcare professionals in other services to access your record with your permission when the practice is closed. This is explained further in the Local Information Sharing section below.

Under the powers of the Health and Social Care Act 2015, NHS Digital can request personal confidential data from GP Practices without seeking patient consent for a number of specific purposes, which are set out in law. These purposes are explained below.

You can choose to withdraw your consent to your personal data being shared for these purposes. When we are about to participate in a new data-sharing project we will display prominent notices in the Practice and on our website at least four weeks before the scheme is due to start. Instructions will be provided to explain what you have to do to ‘opt-out’ of the new scheme. Please be aware that it may not be possible to opt out of one scheme and not others, so you may have to opt out of all the schemes if you do not wish your data to be shared.

You can object to your personal information being shared with other healthcare providers but should be aware that this may, in some instances, affect your care as important information about your health might not be available to healthcare staff in other organisations. If this limits the treatment that you can receive then the practice staff will explain this to you at the time you object.

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.

Keeping your records up-to-date

DPA 2018 and UK GDPR requires that the information we hold about you is accurate and current. We rely on our patients to tell us if they have moved house, or had medical treatment abroad. For our part, we will update your medical records at each consultation with a doctor or a nurse (either face to face, or by telephone), and with any relevant information we receive from hospital, community or social services providers (e.g. new diagnoses, change in circumstances).

Child Health Information

We wish to make sure that your child has the opportunity to have immunisations and health checks when they are due. We share information about childhood immunisations, the 6-8 week new baby check and breast-feeding status with NHS Health Foundation Trust health visitors and school nurses, and with NHS South Central and West Commissioning Support Unit, who provide the Child Health Information Service in Hampshire on behalf of NHS England. 

Mobile Phones

If you provide us with your mobile phone number, we may use this to send you reminders about any appointments or other health screening information being carried out. This may be by telephone call or SMS text messaging, ( if this service is available). Please contact the reception if you wish to ‘opt-out’ of this service and this information will be added to your records.

Clinical audit

Information will be used by the Integrated Care Board ( Formerly Clinical Commissioning Group) for clinical audit to monitor the quality of the service provided to patients with long terms conditions. When required, information will be held centrally and used for statistical purposes (e.g. the National Diabetes Audit). When this happens, strict measures are taken to ensure that individual patients cannot be identified from the data.

Clinical Research

We get requests from organisations to use our information for research purposes - we will always ask your permission before releasing any information for this purpose.

Department for Work and Pensions

Our practice is legally required to provide anonymised data on patients who have been issued with a fit note under the Fit for Work scheme. The purpose is to provide the Department for Work and Pensions with information from fit notes to improve the monitoring of public health and commissioning and quality of health services.

Improving Diabetes Care

Information that does not identify individual patients is used to enable focused discussions to take place at practice-led local diabetes review meetings between health care professionals. This enables the professionals to improve the management and support of these patients. 

Individual Funding Request

An ‘Individual Funding Request’ is a request made on your behalf, with your consent, by a clinician, for funding of specialised healthcare which falls outside the range of services and treatments that Integrated Care Board has agreed to commission for the local population. An Individual Funding Request is taken under consideration when a case can be set out by a patient’s clinician that there are exceptional clinical circumstances which make the patient’s case different from other patients with the same condition who are at the same stage of their disease, or when the request is for a treatment that is regarded as new or experimental and where there are no other similar patients who would benefit from this treatment. A detailed response, including the criteria considered in arriving at the decision, will be provided to the patient’s clinician.

Invoice Validation

Invoice validation is an important process. It involves using your NHS number to identify which Integrated Care Board is responsible for paying for your treatment. Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 provides a statutory legal basis to process data for invoice validation purpos