Important Changes To How We Handle Your Personal Data
We will soon be required to supply your personal and confidential medical Information to the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). This information will be taken from the practice in a form that can identify you. The Practice has no choice but to allow the HSCIC to extract this information. However, individual patients can instruct their Practice to stop the transfer of their data. For more information on the reasons for this data extract and how to opt out of sending your confidential information: see below.
There are changes occurring in how we protect the confidential and personal information that we record in your medical records. The changes make it a legal obligation for us to share your information (see leaflet for details (.pdf)). The proposed benefits of sharing identifiable data are to help to plan and monitor effective patient services, especially where patients receive care from several different organisations.
We feel it is vital that you, as our patient, are made aware of these changes. A leaflet has been produced to help you understand what currently happens to information you share with your health professional and how that information may be used outside of your direct care.
The official NHS England poster, NHS England information leaflet and NHS England FAQ are available from the NHS England website
If you decide that you would like to prevent your information from being used in this way, you can complete an Opt Out Form (.doc) and return it to the surgery signed.
If you change your mind later, you can always use the form to opt back in.
Access To Medical Records
For routine Audit purposes, representatives of the Primary Care Trust will be required to look at patients’ medical records. The auditors may not be medically qualified but all are bound by their contract of employment to respect confidentiality. However, if you do not wish your notes to be used in this way, please inform us at the front desk and your notes will be annotated accordingly. Insurance Companies and Solicitors will ask for access to your medical records in certain circumstances, eg mortgage applications and accidents. We will only release this information if you have signed a medical records release form.