Privacy Notice And Data Sharing

Sharing your information

NHS England is commissioning a modern data service from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) on behalf of the entire health and social care system, to collect data covering all care settings both in and outside of hospital.

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, NHS England has the power to direct the HSCIC to collect information from all providers of NHS care, including general practices.

Sharing such information can help improve understanding, locally and nationally, of the most important health needs and the quality of treatment and care provided by local health services. It may also help research into patterns in diseases, responses to different treatments and potential solutions.

Information such as your postcode and NHS number, but not your name, will be used to link your records in a secure system so that your identity is protected.

Strict guidelines must be adhered to before any information can be released and we want to assure you that, as your GPs and therefore guardians of the information we hold about you, we will be viligant on your behalf and be cautious about what information is shared.

This practice is supporting vital health and care planning and research by sharing your data with NHS Digital. For more information about this see the GP Practice Privacy Notice for General Practice Data for Planning and Research.

If you do not want information to be shared outside your GP practice, ask us to make a note of this in your medical record. If you are happy for your information to be shared you do not need to do anything but you can change your mind at any time.

If you have any concerns of questions, either ask us at the surgery or visit www.hscic.gov.uk.

Privacy Notice for General Practice

A Privacy Notice (or ‘Fair Processing Notice’) is an explanation of what information the Practice collects on patients and how it is used. Being transparent and providing clear information to patients about how a Practice uses their personal data is an essential requirement of the Data Protection Act 1998.

How We Use Your Personal Information

This Privacy Notice (Fair Processing Notice) explains why Port View Surgery 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, 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 Port View Surgery hold about you may include the following information:

Details about you, such as your address, carer, 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 Port View Surgery 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

Risk stratification data tools are increasingly being used in the NHS to help determine a person’s risk of suffering a 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 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. Please note that you have the right to opt out of your data being used in this way.

Patient Data and How We Keep It Safe

Access to patient data is part of the essential activities of the NHS. It helps with decision-making on service delivery and improvements in healthcare. Section 251 of the NHS Act 2006 allows the use of confidential patient information for defined purposes when it is not possible to use anonymised information and when seeking consent from individuals is not practical. Section 251 will continue to be required until the processes to link data in pseudonymised form are properly developed within the NHS.

Anonymised data: information identifying the patient has been removed, so we can’t tell who the data belongs to.

Pseudonymised data: most of the identifiable elements are removed or ‘scrambled’. The people who do have a legal right in the NHS to see the identifiable data – the GP or a clinician working in a GP practice – can see the data and know who it belongs to, so that they can offer support to the high-risk patients identified through Risk Stratification.

Authorisation

  • The ICB produces anonymised data from individual identifiable patient records held in a regional data repository which the ICB does not have access to, in order to support Risk Stratification activities.
  • The ICB sometimes collects and uses information about past or present geographical location from patient records held in the same repository. Postcodes are required for ward-level analysis. As there is a potential to identify individual patients using this information, it is regarded as ‘patient-identifiable data’ or PID.
  • The ICB is able to identify, and with appropriate ‘Data Controller’ approval, contact patients to invite them to participate in medical research. The ICB can also use patient data for medical research. However, it very rarely does this, as most medical research is undertaken outside the ICB and by non-ICB staff.
  • The ICB links patient-identifiable information from more than one source, validating the completeness or quality of the information.
  • The ICB has the authority to process certain patient identifiable information (usually NHS number only) for the purpose of auditing, monitoring and analysing patient care or treatment.
  • The ICB has the authority to process patient identifiable information for an authorised user for one or more of the purposes outlined above.

Protection

  • The ICB protects this information by using security and confidentiality processes recognised by the community (NHS organisations and the public) to be more advanced than other national data collection and aggregation initiatives.
  • The ICB stores and analyses the information in a secure environment.
  • Access to this information is restricted to appropriate members of the ICB.
  • The ICB provides regular (annual) mandatory and specialist Information Governance training to all ICB staff.
  • The ICB ensures the information collected conforms to the strict rules of confidentiality established by Acts of Parliament, including the Data Protection Act, the NHS Act 2006, and Health & Social Care Acts.

Medicines Management

Port View Surgery may conduct Medicines Management Reviews of medications prescribed to its patients. This service performs a review of prescribed medications to ensure patients receive the most appropriate, up to date and cost effective treatments. This service is provided to practices within East Cornwall and Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group.

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 1998
  • Human Rights Act 1998
  • Common Law Duty of Confidentiality
  • Health and Social Care Act 2012
  • NHS Codes of Confidentiality, Information Security and Records Management
  • Information: To Share or Not to Share Review

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 third 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 Caldicott’s 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.

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:

  • 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
  • Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC)
  • Local Authorities
  • Police and Judicial Services
  • Voluntary Sector Providers
  • Private Sector Providers
  • 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 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 1998 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

If you would like to make a subject access request, please contact the practice manager in writing. There may be a charge for this service. Any charges to this notice will be published on our website and on the practice noticeboard.

Your Data Matters to the NHS

Information about your health and care helps to improve your individual care, speed up diagnosis, plan your local services and research new treatments.

In May 2018, the strict rules about how this data can cannot be used were strengthened. The NHS is committed to keeping patient information safe and always being clear about how it is used.

You can choose whether your confidential patient information is used for research and planning.

To find out more visit: www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters.

What Should You Do Next?

you do not need to do anything if you are happy about how your confidential patient information is used.

If you do not want your confidential patient information to be used for research and planning, you can choose to opt out securely online or through a telephone service.

You can change your choice at any time by visiting:

www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters or call 0300 303 5678.

Objections / Complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed at Port View surgery please contact the practice manager. If you are still unhappy following a review by the practice you can then complain to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) through their website www.ico.gov.co.uk.

If you are happy for your data to be extracted and used for the purposes described in this privacy notice then you do not need to do anything. If you have any concerns about how your data is shared then please contact the practice.

Mobile Telephone

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.

Cookies

The website uses third-party cookies to collect anonymous traffic data about your use of this website. This information is stored by google and subject to their privacy policy, which can be viewed here: http://www.google.com/privacy.html. Google Analytics collects information such as pages you visit on this site, the browser and operating system you use and time spent viewing pages. The purpose of this information is to help us improve the site for future visitors. These cookies are not used to track you or your activity but if you do not wish these cookies to be stored by our computer, disable cookies in your browser settings.

You may delete Cookies at any time. See the help in your internet browser to find out how to delete your cookies.

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 1998 requires organisations to register a notification with the Information Commissioner to describe the purposes for which they process personal and sensitive information.

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

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

Who Is The Data Controller?

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

Tina Seedhouse, Port View surgery.

Any changes to this notice will be published on our website and displayed in prominent places in the surgery.

Further Information

Further information about the way in which the NHS uses personal information and your rights in that respect can be found in:

NHS England – Better Data, Informed Commissioning, Driving Improves Outcomes: Clinical Data Sets provides further information about the data flowing within the NHS to support commissioning.

Please visit the NHS Digital website for further information about their work.

Complaints

Should you have any concerns about how your information is managed by the Practice please contact the practice manager at the following address:

Port View Surgery
Higher Port View
Saltash
Cornwall
PL12 4BU

If you are still unhappy following a review by the practice you can then complain to:

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO).

Telephone: 0303 123 1113 (local rate) or 01625 545 745

Website: www.ico.org.uk

Email: casework@ico.org.uk

Details about who we share your data with and why can be found within our Legal requirements to share document.

For a child friendly version of the policy, please read our Childrens’ Privacy Notice document.