Practice Policies

Fair processing notice

How we use your personal information

This fair processing notice explains why the 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. hospital, GP surgery, walk-in clinic, 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

• Sexual Orientation

• Trans status ( please see following link for BMA guidance for managing confidentiality for patients with gender dysphoria – www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/gp-practices/gp-service-provision/managing-patients-with-gender-dysphoria)

Your records will be retained in accordance with the NHS code of practice for records management.

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.

How do we maintain the confidentiality of your records?

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

• Data Protection Act 2018

• Human Rights Act 1998

• Common Law Duty of Confidentiality

• Health and Social Care Act 2012

• NHS Codes of Confidentiality and Information Security

• Information: To Share or Not to Share Review

• Gender Recognition Act 2004

Every member of staff who works for the practice or another 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 for example child/adult protection and serious criminal activity.

Who are our partner organisations?

We may also have to share your information, subject to strict agreements on how it will be used, with the following organisations or receive information from the following organisations:

• NHS trusts / foundation trusts

• GPs

• NHS commissioning support units

• Independent contractors such as dentists, opticians, pharmacists

• Private sector providers

• Voluntary sector providers

• Ambulance trusts

• Clinical commissioning groups

• Social care services

• NHS digital

• Local authorities

• Education services

• Fire and rescue services

• Police and judicial services

• Other ‘data processors’ which you will be informed of

You will be informed who your data will be shared with and in some cases asked for explicit consent for this to happen when this is required.

We may also use external companies to process personal information, such as for archiving purposes. These companies are bound by contractual agreements to ensure information is kept confidential and secure.

Access to personal information

You have a right under the Data Protection Act 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.

In order to request this, you need to do the following:

• Your request must be made in writing to the GP – for information from the hospital you should write direct to them

• There may be a charge to have a printed copy of the information held about you

• We are required to respond to you within 40 days

• You will need to give adequate information (for example full name, address, date of birth, NHS number and details of your request) so that your identity can be verified and your records located.

Objections / Complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at the GP, 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.

Change of Details

It is important that you tell the person treating you if any of your details such as your name or address have changed or if any of your details such as date of birth is incorrect in order for this to be amended. You have a responsibility to inform us of any changes so our records are accurate and up to date for you.

Notification

The Data Protection Act 2018 requires organisations to register a notification with the Information Commissioner to describe the purposes for which they process personal and sensitive information.

This information is publicly available on the Information Commissioners Office website www.ico.org.uk.

The practice is registered with the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Who is the Data Controller?

The Data Controller responsible for keeping your information secure and confidential is:

Kay Keane

Practice manager

You can find more useful information about this on the government website by visiting www.gov.uk.

The Freedom of Information Act 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

• Police forces

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

The Surgery publication scheme

A publication scheme requires an authority to make information available to the public as part of its normal business activities.

The scheme lists information under seven broad classes, which are:

• Who we are and what we do

• What we spend and how we spend it

• What our priorities are and how we are doing it

• How we make decisions

• Our policies and procedures

• Lists and registers

• The services we offer

You can request our publication scheme leaflet at the surgery.

Who can request information?

Under the act, any individual, anywhere in the world, is able to make a request to a practice for information. An applicant is entitled to be informed in writing, by the practice, whether the practice holds information of the description specified in the request and if that is the case, have the information communicated to him/her. An individual can request information, regardless of whether he/she is the subject of the information or affected by its use.

How should requests be made?

Requests must:

• Be made in writing (this can be electronically e.g. email/fax)

• State the name of the applicant and an address for correspondence

• Describe the information requested

What cannot be requested?

Personal data about staff and patients covered under Data Protection Act.

For more information see these websites:

• Legislation GOV.UK

• Information Commissioners Office

Urban Village Medical Practice fully supports the NHS zero tolerance policy. We have a duty of care for the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff and patients and a legal obligation to ensure that we offer a safe and secure work environment.

All of our employees are entitled to come to work without fear of being attacked or abused. We expect all patients and visitors to the building to treat all our staff members courteously and act reasonably.

We understand that when you feel unwell, are in pain or under pressure, it can be difficult to remain calm and we will take this into consideration when trying to deal with a misunderstanding or complaint.

We consider the following actions or behaviour towards staff or other patients to be unacceptable:

• Physical assault, unwanted physical contact or intentional damage to property

• Any act of discrimination, harassment or threats of violence in person, over the phone or via electronic communication channels, including email and social media

• Verbal abuse

• Theft

• Malicious communications or allegations

• Aggressive tone or body language, including offensive gestures

• Swearing and foul language

• Refusal to engage with certain clinicians or insistence on appointments with specific clinicians without good reason

• Forcing entry or entering areas of the building without being invited to do so

This list is not exhaustive and there may be other occasions where behaviour is deemed to be unacceptable

Depending on the severity of an incident or series of incidents, we may take the following actions:

• A formal written warning to the patient

• A decision that the relationship of trust between the patient and the practice has broken down and the patient will be deducted from our patient list and advised to register with an alternate practice

• In serious cases, the police will be notified and patients will be removed from our patient list immediately