PRIVACY NOTICE- DIRECT CARE

Registering for NHS care

·         All patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database.

·         This database holds your name, address, date of birth and NHS Number but it does not hold information about the care you receive.

·         The database is held by NHS Digital, NHS Wales Information Services, a national organisation which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS data.

·          More information can be found at: https://digital.nhs.uk/ or the phone number for general enquires at NHS Digital is 0300 303 5678]

Identifying patients who might be at risk of certain diseases

·         Your medical records will be searched by a computer programme so that we can identify patients who might be at high risk from certain diseases such as heart disease or unplanned admissions to hospital.

·         This means we can offer patients additional care or support as early as possible.

·         This process will involve linking information from your GP record with information from other health or social care services you have used.

·         Information which identifies you will only be seen by this practice.

Safeguarding

·         Sometimes we need to share information so that other people, including healthcare staff, children or others with safeguarding needs, are protected from risk of harm.

·         These circumstances are rare.

·         We do not need your consent or agreement to do this.

This practice may keep data on you relating to who you are, where you live, what you do, your family, possibly your friends, your employers, your habits, your problems and diagnoses, the reasons you seek help, your appointments, where you are seen and when you are seen, who by, referrals to specialists and other healthcare providers, tests carried out here and in other places, investigations and scans, treatments and outcomes of treatments, your treatment history, the observations and opinions of other healthcare workers, within and without the NHS as well as comments and aide memoires reasonably made by healthcare professionals in this practice who are appropriately involved in your health care.

When registering for NHS care, all patients who receive NHS care are registered on a national database, the database is held by NHS Digital, a national organisation which has legal responsibilities to collect NHS

GPs have always delegated tasks and responsibilities to others that work with them in their surgeries, on average an NHS GP has between 1,500 to 2,500 patients for whom he or she is accountable. It is not possible for the GP to provide hands on personal care for each and every one of those patients in those circumstances, for this reason GPs share your care with others, predominantly within the surgery but occasionally with outside organisations.

If your health needs require care from others elsewhere outside this practice we will exchange with them whatever information about you that is necessary for them to provide that care. When you make contact with healthcare providers outside the practice but within the NHS it is usual for them to send us information relating to that encounter. We will retain part or all of those reports. Normally we will receive equivalent reports of contacts you have with non NHS services but this is not always the case.

Your consent to this sharing of data, within the practice and with those others outside the practice is assumed and is allowed by the Law.

People who have access to your information will only normally have access to that which they need to fulfil their roles, for instance admin staff will normally only see your name, address, contact details, appointment history and registration details in order to book appointments, the practice nurses will normally have access to your immunisation, treatment, significant active and important past histories, your allergies and relevant recent contacts whilst the GP you see or speak to will normally have access to everything in your record.

You have the right to object to our sharing your data in these circumstances but we have an overriding responsibility to do what is in your best interests. Please see below.

We are required by Articles in the General Data Protection Regulations to provide you with the information in the following 9 subsections.

1) Data Controller contact details

Drs Czerniewski, Reynolds, Chesser & Harris. Dunchurch Surgery, Dunsmore Heath, Dunchurch, Rugby, CV22 6AP

2) Data Protection Officer contact details

If you have any queries please contact the Practice Manager.

3) Purpose of the  processing

Direct Care is care delivered to the individual alone, most of which is provided in the surgery. After a patient agrees to a referral for direct care elsewhere, such as a referral to a specialist in a hospital, necessary and relevant information about the patient, their circumstances and their problem will need to be shared with the other healthcare workers, such as specialist, therapists, technicians etc. The information that is shared is to enable the other healthcare workers to provide the most appropriate advice, investigations, treatments, therapies and or care.

4) Lawful basis for  processing

The processing of personal data in the delivery of direct care and for providers’ administrative purposes in this surgery and in support of direct care elsewhere  is supported under the following Article 6 and 9 conditions of the GDPR:

Article 6(1)(e) ‘…necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority…’.

Article 9(2)(h) ‘necessary for the purposes of preventative 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...” 

We will also recognise your rights established under UK case law collectively known as the “Common Law Duty of Confidentiality”^*

5) Recipient or categories of recipients of the processed data

The data will be shared with Health and care professionals and support staff in this surgery and at hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centres who contribute to your personal care.  Such as local hospitals, e.g. St Cross or UHCW

6) Rights to object

You have the right to object to some or all the information being processed under Article 21. Please contact the Data Controller or the practice. You should be aware that this is a right to raise an objection, that is not the same as having an absolute right to have your wishes granted in every circumstance

7) Right to access and correct

You have the right to access the data that is being shared and have any inaccuracies corrected. There is no right to have accurate medical records deleted except when ordered by a court of Law.

8) Retention period

The data will be retained in line with the law and national guidance. https://digital.nhs.uk/article/1202/Records-Management-Code-of-Practice-for-Health-and-Social-Care-2016

or speak to the practice.

9)  Right to Complain.

You have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office, you can use this link https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/ 

or calling their helpline Tel: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745 (national rate)

There are National Offices for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, (see ICO website)